Review

Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of plants: Basic principles and influencing factors

Mohammad Alimohammadi* and Mohammad B. Bagherieh-Najjar

Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Golestan University, Gorgan, Iran.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: mohamad82@gmail.com.

Accepted 23 March, 2009

Transformation is an important topic in plant biology and transgenic plants have become a major focus in plant research and breeding programs. Agrobacterium-mediated transformation as a practical and common method for introducing specific DNA fragments into plant genomes is well established and the number of transgenic plants produced using this method is increasing. Despite the popularity of the method, low efficiency of transformation is a major challenge for scientists. Modification of different genetic and environmental aspects of transformation method may lead to better understanding of the system and result in high efficiency transformation. In this review, we deal with recent genetic findings as well as different environmental factors which potentially influence Agrobacterium-mediated transformation.

Key words: Agrobacterium transformation, T-DNA integration, transformation efficiency.