hygromycin-a and arabitol

Arabitol dehydrogenase has been adapted for use as a plant selectable marker. Arabitol is a five-carbon sugar alcohol that can be used by E. coli strain C, but not by the laboratory K12 strains. The enzyme converts the non-plant-metabolizable sugar arabitol into xylulose, which is metabolized by plant cells. Rice was transformed with a plant-expression-optimized synthetic gene using Biolistic-mediated transformation. Selection on 2.75% arabitol and 0.25% sucrose yielded a transformation efficiency (9.3%) equal to that obtained with hygromycin (9.2%). Molecular analyses showed that the atlD gene was integrated into the rice genome of selected plants and was inherited in a Mendelian manner. This study indicates that arabitol could serve as an effective means of plant selection.

Topics: Agriculture; Biolistics; Cinnamates; Escherichia coli; Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Gene Transfer Techniques; Genetic Markers; Genetic Vectors; Genome, Plant; Hygromycin B; Molecular Biology; Oryza; Oxidoreductases; Plants, Genetically Modified; Sucrose; Sugar Alcohols; Transformation, Genetic