Introduction and transposition of maize controlling element “Ac” into nicotiana tabacum

Maize controlling element Ac was introduced into Nicotiana tabacum cv. NC82 which is cultivated widely in Korea. Agrobacterium-mediated transformation method was applied to transfer the Ac, and the transformants were regenerated to whole plants. After 2-3 weeks of inoculation of the leaf discs with Agrobacterium containing the TAc7 plasmid, callus was formed in callus inducing media supplemented with 100mg/l kanamycin. The shoots were regenerated from calli by shoot inducing media supplemented with 100mg/l kanamycin. Transformation of the regenerated plants were confirmed by checking the stability on media supplemented with kanamycin. Integration, copy number, and transposition of the Ac element in the transgenic plants were confirmed by Southern blot analysis. Five analyzed transformants contained the Ac fragments, two of which were found transposed in the plant genome.