Efficacy of an intron-containing kanamycin resistance gene as a selectable marker in plant transformation

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In this project we have analysed the use of an intron-containing neomycin phosphotransferase II - nptII - gene. The advantage of this construct is that only eukaryotic organisms will be able to process this gene. Accordingly, the theoretical risk of horizontal gene flow of antibiotic resistance genes from transgenic plants to enteric bacteria is eliminated. The ST-LS1 intron IV2 from potato was inserted into the coding region of nptII. Transformation of Solanum tuberosum (potato) and Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco) with constructs containing the intron nptII showed similar transformation frequencies to transformation with constructs containing the normal nptII. Analysis of total DNA and RNA confirmed that the intron-containing nptII gene was present in the plants and that the mRNA was processed correctly.

Original languageEnglish
JournalPlant Cell Reports
Volume20
Issue number7
Pages (from-to)610-615
Number of pages6
ISSN0721-7714
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2001

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Acknowledgements The work was performed during the stay of Gabriela Libiakova as guest researcher in the Biotechnology Group, DIAS, and was supported by the Danish Academy of Research Danvis project 1997–145–004. The authors would like to thank Ms Winnie Dam for helping with the tissue culture work.

    Research areas

  • Intron, NPTII, Potato, Selection, Tobacco

ID: 308329209