树木的遗传工程-美国在杨树抗除草剂育种方面取得突破性进展

1987年,美国加利福尼亚和威斯康星州的育种专家在杨树抗除草剂育种方面取得了突破性进展。他们设计并合成出一个改良的T-DNA质粒,通过致瘤农杆菌输入受体,采用组培技术获得这一成果。文中还介绍了树木基因工程的一般原理。

Advance in Genetic Engineering of Forest Tree

Genetic engineering is a comprehensive technological field of biology,developed in the 1970's. Since 80's with its rapid development a wide application achieved in industry, agriculture and medicine. However it is too difficult to be used in forestry, because large size and long life-span of tree are limiting factors to use gene manipulation. Furthermore, no appropriate vector was known to integrate a purpose gene to it and then be transferred to the cell of a tree. In recent years technology of tissue culture has undergone a marvellous progress to make the miniaturization of tree possible. The discovery of Ti plasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens provides an appropriate gene vector which invades the tree wounds,inserts some of it on genes into the DNA of the tree and causes the crown gall fumors to develop. As a result, a large, swollen fumor on thetrunk of the tree is formed. So Ti plasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens an ideal natural gene vector. American scientists in Rhinelander applied this vector and inserted some anti-herbicide gene to Ti plasmid and transferred it to the cell of poplar's leaves by tissue culture. Using this technique a new clone of herbicide-resistant poplar was obtained. It enters a new stage in development of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding at a molecular level. A brief review of the progress of this work was also given in this paper.