Pollen magnetofection for genetic modification with magnetic nanoparticles as gene carriers

Nat Plants. 2017 Dec;3(12):956-964. doi: 10.1038/s41477-017-0063-z. Epub 2017 Nov 27.

Abstract

Genetic modification plays a vital role in breeding new crops with excellent traits. Almost all the current genetic modification methods require regeneration from tissue culture, involving complicated, long and laborious processes. In particular, many crop species such as cotton are difficult to regenerate. Here, we report a novel transformation platform technology, pollen magnetofection, to directly produce transgenic seeds without regeneration. In this system, exogenous DNA loaded with magnetic nanoparticles was delivered into pollen in the presence of a magnetic field. Through pollination with magnetofected pollen, transgenic plants were successfully generated from transformed seeds. Exogenous DNA was successfully integrated into the genome, effectively expressed and stably inherited in the offspring. Our system is culture-free and genotype independent. In addition, it is simple, fast and capable of multi-gene transformation. We envision that pollen magnetofection can transform almost all crops, greatly facilitating breeding processes of new varieties of transgenic crops.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study

MeSH terms

  • DNA, Plant
  • Gossypium / genetics*
  • Magnetite Nanoparticles*
  • Plants, Genetically Modified / genetics*
  • Pollen / genetics*
  • Seeds / genetics
  • Transfection / methods*

Substances

  • DNA, Plant
  • Magnetite Nanoparticles