Reyes, Otegui publish innovative method to study cereal grains

Direct maize endosperm transformation method using Agrobacterium cells. Seeds tissues (endosperm) are dissected from kernels, transformed with fluorescent markers, and grown in vitro (A, A’). Panel C shows a laser scanning confocal micrograph of endosperm cells transformed with a green fluorescent marker that localizes to the endomembrane system (transformed cells are indicated by asterisks). © American Society of Plant Biologists.

Dr. Francisca Reyes and Professor Marisa Otegui in the Department of Botany, in collaboration with colleagues in Pioneer Hi-Bred International, recently published a paper on an innovative method to study cellular dynamics in cereal grains.

The method is based on the in vitro culture of dissected seed tissues and their transformation with Agrobacterium cells carrying transgenes for the expression of key cellular proteins fused to fluorescent tags.

The fluorescence signal can then be visualized directly on the dissected tissues using specialized microscopes.

This method allows for the efficient imaging of multiple fluorescent proteins and save months of work required to generate transgenic cereal plants.

The mentioned publication can be found at:

http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/content/full/153/2/624