Biolistic Approach for Transient Gene Expression Studies in Plants

Overview

Journal Methods Mol Biol

Specialty Molecular Biology

Date 2020 Apr 12

PMID 32277451

Citations 14

Authors

Benoit Lacroix

Vitaly Citovsky

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Since its inception in the late 1980s, the delivery of exogenous nucleic acids into living cells via high-velocity microprojectiles (biolistic, or microparticle bombardment) has been an invaluable tool for both agricultural and fundamental plant research. Here, we review the technical aspects and the major applications of the biolistic method for studies involving transient gene expression in plant cells. These studies cover multiple areas of plant research, including gene expression, protein subcellular localization and cell-to-cell movement, plant virology, silencing, and the more recently developed targeted genome editing via transient expression of customized endonucleases.

Citing Articles

RNAi and genome editing of sugarcane: Progress and prospects.

Brant E, Zuniga-Soto E, Altpeter F Plant J. 2025; 121(5):e70048.

PMID: 40051334 PMC: 11886501. DOI: 10.1111/tpj.70048.

Overexpression of GFP Fusions of Regulators of the SAC from Arabidopsis thaliana.

Pain C Methods Mol Biol. 2024; 2874:21-32.

PMID: 39614044 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-4236-8_3.

Advances in Soybean Genetic Improvement.

Vargas-Almendra A, Ruiz-Medrano R, Nunez-Munoz L, Ramirez-Pool J, Calderon-Perez B, Xoconostle-Cazares B Plants (Basel). 2024; 13(21).

PMID: 39519991 PMC: 11548167. DOI: 10.3390/plants13213073.

Rice transformation treatments leave specific epigenome changes beyond tissue culture.

Hsieh J, Chang P, Kuang L, Hsing Y, Chen P Plant Physiol. 2023; 193(2):1297-1312.

PMID: 37394940 PMC: 10517251. DOI: 10.1093/plphys/kiad382.

Particle bombardment-assisted peptide-mediated gene transfer for highly efficient transient assay.

Kimura M, Endo A, Nagira Y, Yoshizumi T BMC Res Notes. 2023; 16(1):46.

PMID: 37024962 PMC: 10080836. DOI: 10.1186/s13104-023-06320-3.

References

Svitashev S, Schwartz C, Lenderts B, Young J, Cigan A . Genome editing in maize directed by CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoprotein complexes. Nat Commun. 2016; 7:13274. PMC: 5116081. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13274. View

Maliga P . Plastid transformation in higher plants. Annu Rev Plant Biol. 2004; 55:289-313. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.arplant.55.031903.141633. View

Gal-On A, Meiri E, Huet H, Hua W, Raccah B, Gaba V . Particle bombardment drastically increases the infectivity of cloned DNA of zucchini yellow mosaic potyvirus. J Gen Virol. 1995; 76 ( Pt 12):3223-7. DOI: 10.1099/0022-1317-76-12-3223. View

Smith F, Harpending P, Sanford J . Biolistic transformation of prokaryotes: factors that affect biolistic transformation of very small cells. J Gen Microbiol. 1992; 138(1):239-48. DOI: 10.1099/00221287-138-1-239. View

Mayfield S, Kindle K . Stable nuclear transformation of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii by using a C. reinhardtii gene as the selectable marker. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1990; 87(6):2087-91. PMC: 53631. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.87.6.2087. View

Martin-Ortigosa S, Peterson D, Valenstein J, Lin V, Trewyn B, Lyznik L . Mesoporous silica nanoparticle-mediated intracellular cre protein delivery for maize genome editing via loxP site excision. Plant Physiol. 2013; 164(2):537-47. PMC: 3912087. DOI: 10.1104/pp.113.233650. View

Baum K, Groning B, Meier I . Improved ballistic transient transformation conditions for tomato fruit allow identification of organ-specific contributions of I-box and G-box to the RBCS2 promoter activity. Plant J. 1997; 12(2):463-9. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-313x.1997.12020463.x. View

Yang N, Sun W . Gene gun and other non-viral approaches for cancer gene therapy. Nat Med. 1995; 1(5):481-3. DOI: 10.1038/nm0595-481. View

Pruss G, Nester E, Vance V . Infiltration with Agrobacterium tumefaciens induces host defense and development-dependent responses in the infiltrated zone. Mol Plant Microbe Interact. 2008; 21(12):1528-38. DOI: 10.1094/MPMI-21-12-1528. View

10.

Oparka K, Roberts A, Boevink P, Cruz S, Roberts I, Pradel K . Simple, but not branched, plasmodesmata allow the nonspecific trafficking of proteins in developing tobacco leaves. Cell. 1999; 97(6):743-54. DOI: 10.1016/s0092-8674(00)80786-2. View

11.

Velasquez A, Chakravarthy S, Martin G . Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) in Nicotiana benthamiana and tomato. J Vis Exp. 2009; (28). PMC: 2795700. DOI: 10.3791/1292. View

12.

OBrien J, Lummis S . Nano-biolistics: a method of biolistic transfection of cells and tissues using a gene gun with novel nanometer-sized projectiles. BMC Biotechnol. 2011; 11:66. PMC: 3144454. DOI: 10.1186/1472-6750-11-66. View

13.

Sainz M, Goff S, CHANDLER V . Extensive mutagenesis of a transcriptional activation domain identifies single hydrophobic and acidic amino acids important for activation in vivo. Mol Cell Biol. 1997; 17(1):115-22. PMC: 231735. DOI: 10.1128/MCB.17.1.115. View

14.

Ditt R, Kerr K, de Figueiredo P, Delrow J, Comai L, Nester E . The Arabidopsis thaliana transcriptome in response to Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Mol Plant Microbe Interact. 2006; 19(6):665-81. DOI: 10.1094/MPMI-19-0665. View

15.

Johnston S, Anziano P, Shark K, Sanford J, Butow R . Mitochondrial transformation in yeast by bombardment with microprojectiles. Science. 1988; 240(4858):1538-41. DOI: 10.1126/science.2836954. View

16.

Boynton J, Gillham N, Harris E, Hosler J, Johnson A, Jones A . Chloroplast transformation in Chlamydomonas with high velocity microprojectiles. Science. 1988; 240(4858):1534-8. DOI: 10.1126/science.2897716. View

17.

Agius F, Amaya I, Botella M, Valpuesta V . Functional analysis of homologous and heterologous promoters in strawberry fruits using transient expression. J Exp Bot. 2004; 56(409):37-46. DOI: 10.1093/jxb/eri004. View

18.

Beyene G, Chauhan R, Taylor N . A rapid virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) method for assessing resistance and susceptibility to cassava mosaic disease. Virol J. 2017; 14(1):47. PMC: 5341465. DOI: 10.1186/s12985-017-0716-6. View

19.

Dalakouras A, Wassenegger M, McMillan J, Cardoza V, Maegele I, Dadami E . Induction of Silencing in Plants by High-Pressure Spraying of In vitro-Synthesized Small RNAs. Front Plant Sci. 2016; 7:1327. PMC: 5003833. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2016.01327. View

20.

Goff S, Klein T, Roth B, Fromm M, Cone K, Radicella J . Transactivation of anthocyanin biosynthetic genes following transfer of B regulatory genes into maize tissues. EMBO J. 1990; 9(8):2517-22. PMC: 552281. DOI: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1990.tb07431.x. View