Transgenic Crop Plants Using Agrobacterium rhizogenes-Mediated Transformation

Abstract

This chapter explores the use of Agrobacterium rhizogenes, which is confined to specific examples with potential applications for plant improvement including: increasing rooting of recalcitrant plants, altering plant phenotype, and the introduction of foreign genes. A. rhizogenes is a soil bacterium responsible for the development of hairy root disease on a range of dicotyledonous plants. A literature survey indicates that transgenic plants have been regenerated from hairy roots of 62 different taxa, representing 53 species from 24 families. In addition, there has been increased interest in the use of A. rhizogenes due to the effect of rol genes on plant morphology and development and the ability to introduce foreign genes via A. rhizogenes-mediated transformation. Progress in A. rhizogenes-mediated transformation of plants from production of hairy roots, to shoot regeneration, to introduction of foreign genes, through to field-testing of transgenic plants, indicates the potential of A. rhizogenes for the production of transgenic crop plants.