A Simple Method for Transient Expression of Reporter Gene in Brinjal Leaves through Agroinfiltration

The soil-borne bacterium, Agrobacterium tumefaciens is called the natural genetic engineer, because it has the capacity to transfer and integrate a part of its tumour inducing (Ti) plasmid DNA (the transfer DNA or T-DNA) into the plant genome. Through exploring this natural system, plant genetic engineers place their gene of interest in the engineered Ti plasmid and deliver the gene of interest through Agrobacterium. The robustness of the system has allowed the generation of numerous transgenic plants in a huge number of crop plants. However, Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation for obtaining stable transgenic line is a timeconsuming process and depends on several factors. First of all, an efficient in vitro plant regeneration system (through tissue culture) for the target plant species appears as a prerequisite for Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation. Most importantly, the site of integration of the transgene delivered by Agrobacterium is random in nature. Naturally, effect of the transgene in the transgenic plant is highly influenced by this ‘position effect’. For this reason, a tissueculture independent system for initial evaluation of the transgene effect becomes very much pertinent in this regard.