Genetička modifikacija divljeg kestena kao sredstvo za poboljšanje ornamentalnih svojstava
Genetic modification of horse chestnut as a tool for the ornamental traits improvement
Abstract:
Reduced plant size, modified habitus and changes in the flowering time may be interesting and economically important in the breeding of ornamentals. These traits could be achieved by genetic transformation with the rol genes of Agrobacterium rhizogenes. Transformed plants, more or less, exhibit traits typical for the hairy root syndrome, including the shortening of internodes abolished apical dominance, increased axilary branching, more compact habitus, changes in leaf and flower morphology, and flowering time shift. Horse chestnut was transformed by using the agropine A. rhizogenes strain A4GUS, with the uidA reporter-gene inserted in the TL-DNA. Plantlets were regenerated from the acquired hairy root lines via the process of somatic embryogenesis, and, to a lesser extent, organogenesis. Transformed plantlets displayed the characteristic hairy root syndrome at varying degrees. Plants of all lines were shorter than control ones, although branching did not increase. The line 36 had almost normal leaf morphology, while lines 43 and 31 had narrow leaves. Lines 39 and 47 displayed the most severe phenotype stunted growth, very narrow dark-green leaves and short petioles. It seems that at least line 36 may be interesting, for example, for the bonsai plants production.