Overcoming of Barriers to Transformation in Monocot Plants

Agrobacterium-mediated transformation has been unsuccessful for monocot plants except for a few important crops such as barley, rice, maize and wheat. We discussed here that a successful transformation of monocots demands certain critical conditions. The requirements for an efficient transformation are a selection of target tissues competent for plant regeneration and Agrobacterium-infection, and various factors promoting Agrobacterium-infection. The factors were divided into two to activate Agrobacterium and to increase plant cell's susceptibility against Agrobacterium. Optimization of these factors significantly increased transformation efficiency of zoysia grass and rice plants. A technical improvement in transformation system for monocots will promote improvement of the breed as well as a study of gene functions in monocots.