Re-assessment of biolistic transient expression: An efficient and robust method for protein localization studies in seedling-lethal mutant and juvenile plants

  • Hao Wang
  • , Qiong Zhao
  • , Jiaxin Fu
  • , Xiangfeng Wang
  • , Liwen Jiang*
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Knowledge on the subcellular localization of target proteins in a plant mutant background is important for revealing the function of the genes investigated. However, in Arabidopsis and rice, mutant lethality is one major barrier to such studies. Here we describe an optimized bombardment-mediated transient expression approach for studying subcellular protein localization in Arabidopsis seedling of lethal mutants. The whole experiment comprises four stages: cultivation and preparation of plants, coating gold particles with plasmid DNA, delivery of DNA into plants via bombardment, plant incubation and gene expression analysis which include localization and dynamics, co-localization comparison with reporter proteins and functional analysis. The entire process takes about 3–10 days from plant cultivation to protein detection. It has a high efficiency and the results are reproducible. Additionally, this protocol is applicable for the transient expression of chimeric fluorescent fusion proteins in juvenile rice seedlings and leaf sheaths, saving time dramatically in comparison of generating transgenic rice plant.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2-7
Number of pages6
JournalPlant Science
Volume274
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2018
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Biolistic transient expression
  • Juvenile rice
  • Protein subcellular localization and dynamics
  • Seedling lethal mutant

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