Evaluation of Parameters Affecting Agrobacterium-Mediated Transient Gene Expression in Industrial Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.)

Tasnim Mohammad; Rishikesh Ghogare; Lauren B Morton; Amit Dhingra; Shobha Potlakayala; Sairam Rudrabhatla; Sarwan K Dhir

doi:10.3390/plants13050664

Evaluation of Parameters Affecting Agrobacterium-Mediated Transient Gene Expression in Industrial Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.)

Plants (Basel). 2024 Feb 28;13(5):664. doi: 10.3390/plants13050664.

Authors

Tasnim Mohammad¹, Rishikesh Ghogare², Lauren B Morton¹, Amit Dhingra², Shobha Potlakayala³, Sairam Rudrabhatla³, Sarwan K Dhir¹

Affiliations

¹ Center for Biotechnology, Department of Agricultural Sciences, Fort Valley State University, 113, Alva Tabor Building, Fort Valley, GA 31030, USA.
² Department of Horticultural Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
³ The Central Pennsylvania Research and Teaching Laboratory for Biofuels, Penn State Harrisburg, Middletown, PA 17057, USA.

Abstract

Industrial hemp Cannabis sativa L. is an economically important crop mostly grown for its fiber, oil, and seeds. Due to its increasing applications in the pharmaceutical industry and a lack of knowledge of gene functions in cannabinoid biosynthesis pathways, developing an efficient transformation platform for the genetic engineering of industrial hemp has become necessary to enable functional genomic and industrial application studies. A critical step in the development of Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation in the hemp genus is the establishment of optimal conditions for T-DNA gene delivery into different explants from which whole plantlets can be regenerated. As a first step in the development of a successful Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation method for hemp gene editing, the factors influencing the successful T-DNA integration and expression (as measured by transient β-glucuronidase (GUS) and Green Florescent Protein (GFP) expression) were investigated. In this study, the parameters for an agroinfiltration system in hemp, which applies to the stable transformation method, were optimized. In the present study, we tested different explants, such as 1- to 3-week-old leaves, cotyledons, hypocotyls, root segments, nodal parts, and 2- to 3-week-old leaf-derived calli. We observed that the 3-week-old leaves were the best explant for transient gene expression. Fully expanded 2- to 3-week-old leaf explants, in combination with 30 min of immersion time, 60 µM silver nitrate, 0.5 µM calcium chloride, 150 µM natural phenolic compound acetosyringone, and a bacterial density of OD_600nm = 0.4 resulted in the highest GUS and GFP expression. The improved method of genetic transformation established in the present study will be useful for the introduction of foreign genes of interest, using the latest technologies such as genome editing, and studying gene functions that regulate secondary metabolites in hemp.

Keywords: Agrobacterium tumefaciens; Cannabis; GFP; GUS; genetic transformation; hemp; transient.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by grants from the Department of Education, Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program (MSEIP; grant number P120A2000016), National Science Foundation Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP; grant number HRD-2011903), and National Science Foundation Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program (S-STEM; grant number DUE-1834046).