Biotechnologists engineer a new variety of grass and make important ground in plant biotechnology.
Creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) is an important species of grass, being widely used as turf, on golf fairways, roadside grassing and as livestock feed in temperate climates, as well as for ornamental purposes. Given economic and environmental implications of such a widely–used variety, research was undertaken by Han et. al (2009) into The main objective was to produce purple coloured creeping bentgrass via and which carried the flavanoid/anthocynanin pathway regulatory genes, Lc (Leaf Colour) and Pl(Purple leaf), both individually and in combination. This research was undertaken in order to increase the ornamental properties of this grass variety, as well as to explore plant metabolism through the flavanoid/anthocyanin pathway.
Creeping bentgrass seeds were infected with the transformed Agrobacterium vector. The Bar gene for herbicide resistance was also cloned for easy identification. After the plants had matured, data was collated and analysed.T he researchers concluded that calli transformed with Lc + Pl and Lc genes were purple to red in colour, while those transformed with only Pl displayed no colour difference to the control plants. This was attributed to tissue or organ specific expression of the flavanoid/anthocyanin biosynthesis genes. This suggests that the presence of Lc is essential for anthocyanin synthesis in the early stages of plant development. Interestingly, the plants transformed with Pl developed purple stems after transferring to a root medium. Based on the results it was proposed that the expression of the structural genes for anthocyanin biosynthesis is sensitive to stages in development. The results also enforced the hypothesis that the Agrobacterium-mediated transformation systems are more efficient than the biolistic method of producing transgenic plants.
This study has important implications for the future of research in this field. It provides fresh insights into the specific metabolic pathways of both this specie and plants in general. It holds promise for future research into manipulating biosynthesis pathways in crop plants using biotechnological approaches.
Reference
Han, Y., Kim, Y., Lee, Y., Kim, S., Cho, K., Chandrasekhar, E. Song, P., Woo, Y. Kim, J. (2009). Production of purple-colored creeping bentgrass using maize transcription factor genes Pl and Lc through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Plant Cell Rep 28:397–406
