Abstract
The salt-tolerance gene rstB under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter was used as a selectable marker gene in the Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum cv. Xanthi). The selective agent for plant regeneration was tolerance to 170 mM sodium chloride. The highest selection efficiency was 83.3%. No obvious differences in selection efficiencies were observed when those obtained using the standard selectable marker gene hpt and a selection regime of 10 mg l−1 hygromycin. Transgenic events were confirmed by PCR, Southern blot, RT-PCR and green fluorescent protein studies. The rstB transgenic plants showed improved salt tolerance and a normal phenotype. Based on these results, we suggest that the rstB gene may be used as a promising selectable marker and an alternative to the antibiotic- or herbicide-resistance genes in plant transformation.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Hi-Tech Program of China (J2002-B-00-03). The authors thank Dr. Mark D. Curtis from Switzerland, who provided the pMDC83 vector. We are grateful to colleagues for their comments and advice during the revision of this article and to Dr. Prof. Scott D. Russell for his critical reading of the manuscript.
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Zhang, WJ., Yang, SS., Shen, XY. et al. The salt-tolerance gene rstB can be used as a selectable marker in plant genetic transformation. Mol Breeding 23, 269–277 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-008-9231-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-008-9231-1