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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbia, Missouri » Plant Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #181485
Title: TOWARDS USING ENDOSPERM TISSUE AS A TRANSIENT TRANSFORMATION MODEL SYSTEM FOR SEED TRAITS IN SOYBEAN

Author
item SCHMIDT, MONICA
item HERMAN, ELIOT

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/5/2005
Publication Date: 6/6/2005
Citation: Schmidt, M.A., Herman, E.M. 2005. Towards using endosperm tissue as a transient transformation model system for seed traits in soybean [abstract]. Society for In Vitro Biology 2005 Meeting.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Soybean (Glycine max L.) is one of the world’s most important crops due to the high content of both oil and protein in its seed. For this reason, the general improvement of soybean through biotechnology has largely focused on seed-specific traits. A significant time delay is incurred with the genetic engineering of seed traits into soybean. Tissue culture/transformation typically take approximately nine months and that is followed by four months for the resultant plant to mature and set seed. Hence, about one year will pass before the initiation of a soybean seed-specific engineering project and the analysis of a desired phenotype. Considering the substantial time investment, efforts to increase the likelihood of obtaining the desired seed phenotype are being made by designing a system in which constructs, genes, promoter expression and cellular localization can quickly be assessed before embarking on a stable soybean transformation project. We are currently using aseptically isolated endosperm tissue from mature soybean cotyledons as a model system to test seed expression of constructs and to visualize localization of introduced proteins within cells. Endosperm tissue was chosen because it is easy to obtain and through protein profiling and electron microscopy analysis it appears to be quite similar to a mature seed. It has also proven to be ideal for immuno-labeling and subsequent microscopy visualization as it is composed of a single cell layer. We will report on the protein and structural similarities between endosperm and seed and show examples of transgene expression in the endosperm. For instance, the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) localization of KDEL constructs and the compartmentalization of various transgenes within protein bodies will be shown. This work demonstrates that the endosperm tissue could successfully be used to transiently transform constructs as a means to assess if the desired phenotype will result before engineering those constructs into soybean.