Research:
Establishment of an Agrobacterium-mediated transformation system using maize mature seeds as the starting material
Mature maize seed sprouting on germination medium
Current maize transformation protocols use immature zygotic embryos as the starting material for transformation or callus culture initiation prior to transformation. This represents one of the major limitations for a public laboratory because it requires a large amount of high quality greenhouse space and intensive care to generate an adequate supply of healthy immature embryos for transformation experiments. We are working to develop an Agrobacterium-mediated mature seed system for maize transformation. Recent work by Sidorov et al (2006) has demonstrated success using this alternative explant.
Callus initiation from mature seed explant (maize)
