Background / The Use of Arabidopsis thaliana

Our aim was to be able to use the protein in terrestrial (Arabidopsis thaliana) as well as in aquatic plants (Wolffia australiana/Duckweed). Since no-one has had much experience with the transformation of Wolffia, we decided to demonstrate the principle initially in the model organisms A. thaliana and Nicotiana tabacum. After we integrated our T4MBP in the pORE_E3 expression vector, which can be used in plants, Rhizobium radiobacter (R. radiobacter) was transformed.

Arabidopsis thaliana (A. thaliana) is the most important model organism in plant science. It is easy to transform via R. radiobacter and has a short regeneration time. For the transformation of A. thaliana we chose the floral dip method. Therefore plants with inflorescence were required. Also a liquid culture of the T4MBP-carrying R. radiobacter was obligatory. This form of transformation is very simple, because we just had to dip the plants with the inflorescence into an infiltration medium, which contains R. radiobacter. After three weeks the plants were withered an we collected their seeds. To select the transgenic seeds all seeds were construed on selection medium.

In the future we want to raise the transgenic seeds and plant A. thaliana on heavy metal containing medium to proof the function of our T4MBP.