title: The non-homologous end-joining pathway is involved in stable transformation in rice.
abstract: Stable transformation with T-DNA needs the coordinated activities of many proteins derived from both host plant cells and Agrobacterium. In dicot plants, including Arabidopsis, it has been suggested that non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ)-one of the main DNA double-strand break repair pathways-is involved in the T-DNA integration step that is crucial to stable transformation. However, how this pathway is involved remains unclear as results with NHEJ mutants in Arabidopsis have given inconsistent results. Recently, a system for visualization of stable expression of genes located on T-DNA has been established in rice callus. Stable expression was shown to be reduced significantly in NHEJ knock-down rice calli, suggesting strongly that NHEJ is involved in Agrobacterium-mediated stable transformation in rice. Since rice transformation is now efficient and reproducible, rice is a good model plant in which to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of T-DNA integration.
authors.affiliation: Plant Genome Engineering Research Unit, Agrogenomics Research Center, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences Tsukuba, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Saika
authors.affiliation: Plant Genome Engineering Research Unit, Agrogenomics Research Center, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences Tsukuba, Japan.
authors.forename: Ayako
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nishizawa-Yokoi
authors.affiliation: Plant Genome Engineering Research Unit, Agrogenomics Research Center, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences Tsukuba, Japan ; Kihara Institute for Biological Research, Yokohama City University Yokohama, Japan.
authors.forename: Seiichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Toki
keywords: Agrobacterium; T-DNA; non-homologous end-joining; rice; stable transformation