Nowadays, available phosphorus (P) deficiency in soil and weed resistance to herbicides have emerged as two severe limiting factors for sustainable agriculture. Therefore, it is of urgent needs to improve plant absorption/utilization ability of the soil P, seek phosphate (Pi)-alternative P fertilizers, and develop new forms of weed control systems. Phosphite (Phi), as a P resource of relatively high amount only less than Pi in Earth, can be converted to utilizable Pi uniquely in some bacterial species by oxidization via its specific dehydrogenase (PTDH), but inhibits plant growth and development. This implies that Phi might rather become a suitable P fertilizer for plants if introducing a PTDH detoxifier from bacteria. Herein, we created the transgenic tobaccos harboring a Pseudomonas PTDH gene (PsPtx) amplified from the soil metagenome previously. RT-PCR showed that the exotic PsPtx gene could express similarly in root, stem and leaf tissues of all transgenic lines. PsPtx transgenic tobaccos could utilize Phi by oxidization as the sole Pi supply, and also outperformed wild-type tobacco with a remarkably dominant growth under Phi stress conditions. Moreover, the PsPtx gene was preliminarily evaluated with a notable quality as a potential candidate of the selection marker in plant genetic transformation. Conclusively, PsPtx and its encoded phosphite dehydrogenase might be applicable for developing a dual system of plant phosphorus utilization and weed control using Phi as P fertilizer and herbicide, and provide an effectual solution to some obstacles in the current crop transgenic studies.
Oxidoreductases ; Phosphites ; Phosphorus ; Plants, Genetically Modified ; Weed Control

Genetically modified (GM) crops were first introduced to farmers in 1995 with the intent to provide better crop yield and meet the increasing demand for food and feed. GM crops have evolved to include a thorough safety evaluation for their use in human food and animal feed. Safety considerations begin at the level of DNA whereby the inserted GM DNA is evaluated for its content, position and stability once placed into the crop genome. The safety of the proteins coded by the inserted DNA and potential effects on the crop are considered, and the purpose is to ensure that the transgenic novel proteins are safe from a toxicity, allergy, and environmental perspective. In addition, the grain that provides the processed food or animal feed is also tested to evaluate its nutritional content and identify unintended effects to the plant composition when warranted. To provide a platform for the safety assessment, the GM crop is compared to non-GM comparators in what is typically referred to as composition equivalence testing. New technologies, such as mass spectrometry and well-designed antibody-based methods, allow better analytical measurements of crop composition, including endogenous allergens. Many of the analytical methods and their intended uses are based on regulatory guidance documents, some of which are outlined in globally recognized documents such as Codex Alimentarius. In certain cases, animal models are recommended by some regulatory agencies in specific countries, but there is typically no hypothesis or justification of their use in testing the safety of GM crops. The quality and standardization of testing methods can be supported, in some cases, by employing good laboratory practices (GLP) and is recognized in China as important to ensure quality data. Although the number of recommended, in some cases, required methods for safety testing are increasing in some regulatory agencies, it should be noted that GM crops registered to date have been shown to be comparable to their nontransgenic counterparts and safe . The crops upon which GM development are based are generally considered safe.
Agriculture ; Animal Feed ; Animals ; Biotechnology ; China ; Consumer Product Safety ; Food, Genetically Modified ; Humans ; Models, Animal ; Plants, Genetically Modified ; Safety

Agroinfiltration is a newly developed plant transient gene expression technique, which is simple, rapid and reproducible. It has been widely used in analyses of foreign gene expression, hypersensitive reaction, gene silencing, promoter activity and identification of new disease-resistance genes. In this paper, we describe the principle and the operation procedure of Agroinfiltration and its application in diverse aspects of plant molecular biology research. Our experiences in modification of the Agroinfiltration technique are also provided.
Agrobacterium tumefaciens ; genetics ; Genetic Vectors ; genetics ; Plants ; genetics ; Plants, Genetically Modified ; Research Design

Chloroplast genetic engineering, offers several advantages over nuclear transformation, including high level of gene expression, increased biosafety, remedying some limitations associated with nuclear genetic transformation, such as gene silencing and the stability of transformed genes. It is now regarded as an attractive new transgenic technique and further development of biotechnology in agriculture. In this article we reviewed the characteristics, applications of chloroplast genetic engineering and its promising prospects were discussed.
Biotechnology ; methods ; Chloroplasts ; genetics ; Genetic Engineering ; methods ; Plants, Genetically Modified ; genetics ; Transformation, Genetic

Gummy stem blight, a plant disease caused by Didymella bryoniae, is one of the major diseases in melon. The disease can seriously reduce melon yield and quality. However, little information is available on the genetics and functional genomics of the fungal pathogen. In this study, we developed an Agrobacterium-mediated transformation system for D. bryoniae by using a universal pathogenic isolate DB11 and the Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain C58C1 carrying plasmid pBIG2RHPH2 harboring the hygromycin B phosphotransferase gene (hph). Total 45 transformants could be obtained per 1 x 10(5) spores when 1 x 10(6) spores per milliliter of D. bryoniae spore suspension were cocultivated with Agrobacterium cells at OD600 = 0.15 for 48 h in the presence of induction medium (pH 5.2) containing acetosyringone at 200 microg/mL and selection medium contained 100 microg/mL of hygromycin B and 200 microg/mL of cefotaxime sodium, ampicillin and tetracycline, respectively. The transformants were stable when grown on PDA medium without hygromycin B for five times and were verified by PCR amplification with the hph primers and by Southern blot analysis with the hph probe. The transformation system will be useful for further studies of functional genes in D. bryoniae.
Agrobacterium tumefaciens ; genetics ; Ascomycota ; genetics ; Cucumis melo ; microbiology ; Plant Diseases ; microbiology ; Plants, Genetically Modified ; Transformation, Genetic

Insecticidal protein genes from Bacillus thuringiensis are currently the most widely used insect-resistant genes. They have been transferred to many crops for breeding and production. Among them, cotton, maize, potato and other insect-resistant crops are commercialized, creating considerable economic benefit. In this review, we summarized advances in identifying functional genes and transgenic crops for insect resistance, compared different strategies for enhancing vigor of insecticidal protein and utilizing gene stacking as well as listing valuable groups of stacked genes. In addition, the methods for multiple gene transformation was discussed.
Animals ; Bacterial Proteins ; genetics ; Crops, Agricultural ; genetics ; Endotoxins ; genetics ; Hemolysin Proteins ; genetics ; Insecta ; Plants, Genetically Modified

Currently, transgenic crops create huge economic, social and ecological benefits with the development of its commercial production. For China, the speed of development and commercialization of transgenic crops is a strategic issue for the sustainable agriculture development and the international competitiveness of our agricultural products. In this paper, we compared and analyzed the status of commercialization of transgenic crops in China and world-wide.
Agriculture ; methods ; trends ; China ; Crops, Agricultural ; genetics ; Gene Transfer Techniques ; trends ; Plants, Genetically Modified ; genetics

Using plants to remove or inactivate heavy metal pollutants from soils and surface waters provide a cheap and sustainable approach of Phytoremediation. However, field trials suggested that the efficiency of contaminant removal using natural hyperaccumulators is insufficient, due to that many of these species are slow growing and produce little shoot biomass. These factors severely constrain their potential for large-scale decontamination of polluted soils. Moreover, both the micronutrient and toxic metal content accumulated in crops determine the quality and safety of our food-chain. By a transgenic approach, the introduction of novel genes responsible for hyperaccumulating phenotype into high biomass plants and/or stable crops uptaking minerals as food is a promising strategy for the development of effective techniques of phytoremediation and improvement of nutritional value of stable food through a viable commercialization. Recently, the progress at molecular level for heavy metal uptaking, detoxification and hyperaccumulation in plants, and also the clarification of some functional genes in bacteria, yeasts, plants and animals, have advanced the research on genetic engineering plants of heavy metal resistance and accumulation, and on the functional genes (e . g. gsh1, MerA and ArsC) and their genetic transformated plants. These studies demonstrated commercialization potentials of phytoremediation. In this paper, the molecular approach, effects and problems in gene transformation were discussed in details, and also the strategy and emphases were probed into the future research.
Biodegradation, Environmental ; Genetic Engineering ; methods ; Metals, Heavy ; metabolism ; Plants, Genetically Modified ; genetics ; metabolism ; Soil Pollutants ; metabolism

Animals ; Genetic Engineering ; Humans ; Plants, Genetically Modified ; genetics ; Plasmids ; Vaccines, Synthetic ; biosynthesis ; genetics

Resveratrol synthase (RS) plays a key role in resveratrol (Res) biosynthesis. RS gene has been formerly reported to be transformed into many plant species and microorganisms, and to play certain roles in metabolic and regulation processes. In this paper, the transformations of RS gene in plants, and the related changes of biological properties, such as metabolites, anti-pathogen activities, anti-radical properties, and developmental characters in transgenic plants, as well as the production of resveratrol in microbes by utilizing RS gene were summarized. Moreover, the application prospects of RS gene in bioengineering were also addressed.
Acyltransferases ; genetics ; Genetic Engineering ; Plants, Genetically Modified ; enzymology ; genetics ; Stilbenes ; metabolism