Transformation Protocol for Tobacco
Plant material:In vitro plants of Nicotiana tabacum L. cv Wisconsin 38
Day 1 Prepare bacteria: • Streak YM plus antibiotic plates with bacteria. • Incubate plates for 2-3 days at 28°C.
Day 3 Transformation:
• Measure about 20mL Minimal A medium for each bacterial strain.
• Scrape or wash bacteria from plate with sterile loop and suspend in 20mL of Minimal A.
• Adjust density to an OD600 0.9-1.0.
• Take first healthy fully expanded leaves from 4-5 week old tissue culture grown tobacco plant, cut into 0.5cm squares (or can use a cork borer, which is about 1.0cm diameter) in deep petri dish, under sterile RMOP liquid medium. Store tissue pieces in RMOP in deep petri dish.
• Transfer leaf pieces (about 20 per transformation) to deep petri dish containing bacterial suspension.
• Swirl to ensure bacteria has contacted cut edge of leaf and let stand for 5 minutes.
• Remove leaf pieces from suspension and blot dry on filter paper or on the edge of the container.
• Place leaf pieces with adaxial side (upper leaf surface) on solid RMOP, about 10 pieces per plate.
• Incubate plates in dark at 28°C for: 2-3 days A. tumefaciens 5 days S. meliloti 5 days M. loti 5-11 days Rhizobium sp. NGR234
Day 6-14 Selection:
• Transfer leaf pieces onto solid RMOP-TCH, with abaxial surface (lower surface of leaf) in contact with media.
• Incubate plates for 2-3 weeks in the light at 28°C, with 16 hours daylight per day.
• Subculture every 2 weeks.
Plantlet formation:
• When shoots appear transfer to MST-TCH pots.
• Incubate plantlets with 16 hours daylight for 1-2 weeks.
• When roots form the plants can be transferred to soil in the glasshouse.
• Plants can be maintained in tissue culture but will need to be subcultured every two weeks. This is done by cutting the growing tip of plant, removing excess leaves and transferring this to fresh media.
Media and Solutions for Tobacco Transformation
YM Media
Mannitol 10g
Yeast extract 0.4g
K2HPO4 (10% w/v stock) 1 ml
KH2PO4 (10% w/v stock) 4 ml
NaCl (10% w/v stock) 1 ml
MgSO4.7H2O (10% w/v stock) 2 ml
• Add Water to 1L
• pH 6.8
• Agar 15g/L
• Autoclave
• When ready to pour add antibiotic selection if required
Keep poured plates for 2 days at room temperature to visualise any
contamination, then store at 4°C.
RMOP + RMOP-TCH media (Svab, et al, 1975)
Sucrose 30g 3%
Myo-inositol 100mg 0.1%
MS Macro 10x 100mL 1x
MS Micro 1000x 1mL 1x
Fe2EDTA Iron 100x 10mL 1x
Thiamine-HCl (10mg/mL stock) 100μL 1mg
NAA (1mg/mL stock) 100μL 0.1mg
BAP (1mg/mL stock) 1mL 1mg
• pH 5.8
• Phytagel 2.5g/L for solid
• autoclave
• for RMOP-TCH, when ready to pour add:
• Timentin (200mg/mL stock) 1mL
• Claforan (250mg/mL stock) 1mL
• Hygromycin (50mg/mL stock) 1mL
BAP (1mg/ml) (6-Benzylaminopurine) Add 1N KOH drop wise to 100mg BAP until dissolved. Make up to 100mL
with Milli-Q H2O
• Store 4°C
NAA (1mg/ml) (Naphthalene acetic acid)
Dissolve 100mg NAA in 1mL absolute ethanol. Add 3mL 1N KOH. Make up
to 80mL with Milli-Q H2O. Adjust pH to 6.0 with 1N HCl, make up to 100mL
with Milli-Q H2O.
• Store 4°C
Cefotaxamine® (250mg/ml)
Add 8ml sterile Milli-Q H2O to 2g Claforan • Store 4°C in dark
Timentin® (200mg/ml)
Add 15ml sterile Milli-Q H2O to 3g Timentin
• Store 4°C
MST + MST-TCH media (Svab, et al, 1975)
Sucrose 30g 3%
MS Macro 10x 100mL 1x
MS Micro 1000x 1mL 1x
Fe2EDTA Iron 100x 10mL 1x
• pH 5.8
• Phytagel 2.5g/L
• autoclave
• for MST-TCH, when ready to pour add:
• Timentin® (200mg/mL stock) 1mL
• Cefotaxamine® (250mg/mL stock) 1mL
• Hygromycin (50mg/mL stock) 1mL
MS Macro 10x (Murashige and Skoog, 1962)
Final concentration
10x (g/L) 1 x mM
KNO3 19.0 18.8
NH4 N03 16.5 20.6
CaCl2.2H2O 4.4 3.0
MgS04.7H2O 3.7 1.5
KH2PO4 1.7 1.25
• Store 4°C
• Substituting chemicals:
• CaCl2 3.3g/L
• MgS04 1.8g/L
MS Micro 1000x (Murashige and Skoog, 1962)
Final concentration 1000x (g/L) 1 x μM
MnS04.4H20 22.3 100
ZnS04.7H20 8.6 30
H3BO3 6.2 100
KI 0.83 5.0
Na2MoO4.2H2O 0.25 1.0
CuSO4.5H2O 25mg 0.1
CoCl2.6H2O 25mg 0.1
• Store 4°C
• Substituting chemicals:
• MnS04.H20 16.9/L
FeSO4EDTA Iron 100x
g/1L 1 x mM
FeS04.7H20 2.78 0.1
Na2EDTA 3.72 0.1
• Store 4°C in dark bottle
References:
Murashige, T. and F. Skoog. 1962. A revised medium for rapid growth and bio assays with tobacco tissue cultures. Phys. Plant. 15: 473-497.
Svab, Z., P. Hajdukiewicz and P. Maliga. 1975. Transgenic tobacco plants by co- cultivation of leaf disks with pPZP Agrobacterium binary vectors. In “Methods in Plant Molecular Biology-A Laboratory Manual”, P. Maliga, D. Klessig, A.. Cashmore, W. Gruissem and J. Varner, eds. Cold Spring Harbor Press: 55- 77.
