Rubber Tree (Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg)
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Rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg.) is an important industrial crop for natural rubber production. At present, more than 9.5 million hectares in
about 40 countries are devoted to rubber tree cultivation with a production about 6.5 million tons of dry rubber each year.
The world supply of natural rubber is barely keeping up with a global demand for 12 million tons of natural rubber in 2020.
Tapping panel dryness (TPD) is a complex physiological syndrome widely found in rubber tree plantations, which causes severe
yield and crop losses in natural rubber producing countries. Currently, there is no effective prevention or treatment for
this serious malady. As it is a perennial tree crop, the integration of specific desired traits through conventional breeding
is both time-consuming and labour-intensive. Genetic transformation with conventional breeding is certainly a more promising
tool for incorporation of agronomically important genes that could improve existing Hevea genotype. This chapter provides an Agrobacterium-mediated transformation protocol for rubber tree using immature antherderived calli as initial explants. We have applied
this protocol to generate genetically engineered plants from a high yielding Indian clone RRII 105 of Hevea brasiliensis (Hb). Calli were co-cultured with Agrobacterium tumefaciens harboring a plasmid vector containing the Hb superoxide dismutase (SOD) gene and the reporter gene used was β-glucuronidase
(GUS) gene (uidA). The selectable marker gene used was neomycin phosphotransferase (nptII) and kanamycin was used as selection agent. We found that a suitable transformation protocol for Hevea consists of a 3-d co-cultivation with Agrobacterium in the presence of 20 mM acetosyringone, 15 mM betaine HCl, and 11.55 mM proline followed by selection on medium containing 300 mg/L kanamycin. Transformed calli surviving on medium containing 300
mg/L kanamycin showed a strong GUS-positive reaction. Upon subsequent subculture into fresh media, we obtained somatic embryogenesis
and germinated plantlets, which were found to be GUS positive. The integration of uidA, nptII, and HbSOD transgenes into Hevea genome was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) as well as Southern blot analysis.
Affiliation(s): (3) Biotechnology Division, Rubber Research Institute of India, Kottayam, 686 009 Kerala, India
Book Title: Agrobacterium Protocols Volume 2
Series: Methods in Molecular Biology | Volume: 344 | Pub. Date: Sep-01-2006 | Page Range: 153-164 | DOI: 10.1385/1-59745-131-2:153
Subject: Plant Sciences
Key Words: Rubber tree - Hevea brasiliensis - genetic transformation - Agrobacterium tumefaciens - polymeruse chain reaction (PCR) amplification - Southern blot hybridization - superoxide dismutase gene (SOD)
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