Abstract
Agrobacterium-mediated transient transformation for gene expression is a simple and fast method to analyze transgene functions in plants. Agroinfiltration in leaves of Nicotiana benthamiana is a common method for transient expression. However, agroinfiltration in leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana is challenging due to the low and variable efficiency. Here, we describe procedures of a highly efficient and robust Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression system, named AGROBEST (Agrobacterium-mediated enhanced seedling transformation) for gene expression in A. thaliana seedlings. High efficiency of AGROBEST has been achieved by virulence (vir) gene pre-induction of a specific disarmed Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain C58C1(pTiB6S3ΔT)H followed by co-cultivation with Arabidopsis seedlings in an optimized medium with AB salts and buffered acidic plant culture medium. The stable acidic medium largely increases Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression levels and reduces plant defense responses, suggesting that AGROBEST enables high transient expression efficiency by compromising plant immunity. In summary, AGROBEST is a simple, fast, reliable, and robust transient expression system offering a quick and convenient method to observe protein localization, protein–protein interactions, promoter activities, and gene functional studies in Arabidopsis seedlings.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hwang HH, Yu M, Lai EM (2017) Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation: biology and applications. Arabidopsis Book 15:e0186
McCullen CA, Binns AN (2006) Agrobacterium tumefaciens and plant cell interactions and activities required for interkingdom macromolecular transfer. Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol 22:101–127
Wu CF, Lin JS, Shaw GC, Lai EM (2012) Acid-induced type VI secretion system is regulated by ExoR-ChvG/ChvI signaling cascade in Agrobacterium tumefaciens. PLoS Pathog 8:e1002938
Christie PJ, Whitaker N, Gonzalez-Rivera C (2014) Mechanism and structure of the bacterial type IV secretion systems. Biochim Biophys Acta 1843:1578–1591
Gelvin SB (2012) Traversing the cell: Agrobacterium T-DNA’s journey to the host genome. Front Plant Sci 3:52
Hellens R, Mullineaux P, Klee H (2000) Technical focus: a guide to Agrobacterium binary Ti vectors. Trends Plant Sci 5:446–451
Chisholm ST, Dahlbeck D, Krishnamurthy N, Day B, Sjolander K, Staskawicz BJ (2005) Molecular characterization of proteolytic cleavage sites of the Pseudomonas syringae effector AvrRpt2. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 102:2087–2092
Yang Y, Li R, Qi M (2000) In vivo analysis of plant promoters and transcription factors by agroinfiltration of tobacco leaves. Plant J 22:543–551
Li JF, Park E, von Arnim AG, Nebenfuhr A (2009) The FAST technique: a simplified Agrobacterium-based transformation method for transient gene expression analysis in seedlings of Arabidopsis and other plant species. Plant Methods 5:6
Wroblewski T, Tomczak A, Michelmore R (2005) Optimization of Agrobacterium-mediated transient assays of gene expression in lettuce, tomato and Arabidopsis. Plant Biotechnol J 3:259–273
Boller T, Felix G (2009) A renaissance of elicitors: perception of microbe-associated molecular patterns and danger signals by pattern-recognition receptors. Annu Rev Plant Biol 60:379–406
Tena G, Boudsocq M, Sheen J (2011) Protein kinase signaling networks in plant innate immunity. Curr Opin Plant Biol 14:519–529
Segonzac C, Zipfel C (2011) Activation of plant pattern-recognition receptors by bacteria. Curr Opin Microbiol 14:54–61
Tsuda K, Qi Y, Nguyen LV, Bethke G, Tsuda Y, Glazebrook J, Katagiri F (2012) An efficient Agrobacterium-mediated transient transformation of Arabidopsis. Plant J 69:713–719
Zipfel C, Kunze G, Chinchilla D, Caniard A, Jones JD, Boller T, Felix G (2006) Perception of the bacterial PAMP EF-Tu by the receptor EFR restricts Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Cell 125:749–760
Marion J, Bach L, Bellec Y, Meyer C, Gissot L, Faure JD (2008) Systematic analysis of protein subcellular localization and interaction using high-throughput transient transformation of Arabidopsis seedlings. Plant J 56:169–179
Wu HY, Liu KH, Wang YC, Wu JF, Chiu WL, Chen CY, Wu SH, Sheen J, Lai EM (2014) AGROBEST: an efficient Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression method for versatile gene function analyses in Arabidopsis seedlings. Plant Methods 10:19
Deblaere R, Bytebier B, De Greve H, Deboeck F, Schell J, Van Montagu M, Leemans J (1985) Efficient octopine Ti plasmid-derived vectors for Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer to plants. Nucleic Acids Res 13:4777–4788
Besnard J, Pratelli R, Zhao CS, Sonawala U, Collakova E, Pilot G, Okumoto S (2016) UMAMIT14 is an amino acid exporter involved in phloem unloading in Arabidopsis roots. J Exp Bot 67:6385–6397
Yekondi S, Liang FC, Okuma E, Radziejwoski A, Mai HW, Swain S, Singh P, Gauthier M, Chien HC, Murata Y, Zimmerli L (2018) Nonredundant functions of Arabidopsis LecRK-V.2 and LecRK-VII.1 in controlling stomatal immunity and jasmonate-mediated stomatal closure. New Phytol 218:253–268
Besnard J, Zhao CS, Avice JC, Vitha S, Hyodo A, Pilot G, Okumoto S (2018) Arabidopsis UMAMIT24 and 25 are amino acid exporters involved in seed loading. J Exp Bot 69:5221–5232
Wu JF, Tsai HL, Joanito I, Wu YC, Chang CW, Li YH, Wang Y, Hong JC, Chu JW, Hsu CP, Wu SH (2016) LWD-TCP complex activates the morning gene CCA1 in Arabidopsis. Nat Commun 7:10
Huang WY, Wu YC, Pu HY, Wang Y, Jang GJ, Wu SH (2017) Plant dual-specificity tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated kinase optimizes light-regulated growth and development in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell Environ 40:1735–1747
Cho HY, Wen TN, Wang YT, Shih MC (2016) Quantitative phosphoproteomics of protein kinase SnRK1 regulated protein phosphorylation in Arabidopsis under submergence. J Exp Bot 67:2745–2760
Cheng MC, Kuo WC, Wang YM, Chen HY, Lin TP (2017) UBC18 mediates ERF1 degradation under light-dark cycles. New Phytol 213:1156–1167
Nicaise V, Candresse T (2017) Plum pox virus capsid protein suppresses plant pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP)-triggered immunity. Mol Plant Pathol 18:878–886
Yang L, Mo WL, Yu XL, Yao N, Zhou Z, Fan XL, Zhang L, Piao MX, Li SM, Yang DH, Lin CT, Zuo ZC (2018) Reconstituting Arabidopsis CRY2 signaling pathway in mammalian cells reveals regulation of transcription by direct binding of CRY2 to DNA. Cell Rep 24:585–593
Chang L, Chang HH, Chang JC, Lu HC, Wang TT, Hsu DW, Tzean Y, Cheng AP, Chu YS, Yeh HH (2018) Plant A20/AN1 protein serves as the important hub to mediate antiviral immunity. PLoS Pathog 14:31
Groenewold MK, Hebecker S, Fritz C, Czolkoss S, Wiesselmann M, Heinz DW, Jahn D, Narberhaus F, Aktas M, Moser J (2019) Virulence of Agrobacterium tumefaciens requires lipid homeostasis mediated by the lysyl-phosphatidylglycerol hydrolase AcvB. Mol Microbiol 111:269–286
Huang FC, Fu BJ, Liu YT, Chang YR, Chi SF, Chien PR, Huang SC, Hwang HH (2018) Arabidopsis RETICULON-LIKE3 (RTNLB3) and RTNLB8 participate in Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation. Int J Mol Sci 19:21
Moller P, Busch P, Sauerbrei B, Kraus A, Forstner KU, Wen TN, Overloper A, Lai EM, Narberhaus F (2019) The RNase YbeY is vital for ribosome maturation, stress resistance, and virulence of the natural genetic engineer Agrobacterium tumefaciens. J Bacteriol 201:18
Shih PY, Chou SJ, Muller C, Halkier BA, Deeken R, Lai EM (2018) Differential roles of glucosinolates and camalexin at different stages of Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Mol Plant Pathol 19:1956–1970
Wang YC, Yu M, Shih PY, Wu HY, Lai EM (2018) Stable pH suppresses defense signaling and is the key to enhance Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression in Arabidopsis seedlings. Sci Rep 8:17071
Wu HY, Chen CY, Lai EM (2014) Expression and functional characterization of the Agrobacterium VirB2 amino acid substitution variants in T-pilus biogenesis, virulence, and transient transformation efficiency. PLoS One 9:e101142
Narasimhulu SB, Deng XB, Sarria R, Gelvin SB (1996) Early transcription of Agrobacterium T-DNA genes in tobacco and maize. Plant Cell 8:873–886
Lai EM, Kado CI (1998) Processed VirB2 is the major subunit of the promiscuous pilus of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. J Bacteriol 180:2711–2717
Kim K-W, Franceschi V, Davin L, Lewis N (2006) β-glucuronidase as reporter gene. In: Salinas J, Sanchez-Serrano J (eds) Arabidopsis protocols, Methods in molecular biology, vol 323. Humana Press, Hoboken, NJ, pp 263–273
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Wu, HY., Lai, EM. (2022). AGROBEST: A Highly Efficient Agrobacterium-Mediated Transient Expression System in Arabidopsis Seedlings. In: Zurbriggen, M.D. (eds) Plant Synthetic Biology. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2379. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1791-5_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1791-5_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-1790-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-1791-5
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols