Aspen Bibliography

Transformation of Hybrid Aspen for Resistance to Crown Gall Disease

Document Type

Contribution to Book

Source

Gen. Tech. Rep. RM-GTR-297. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. 326 p.

Editor

N. B. Klopfenstein, Y. W. Chun, M. -S. Kim, M. A. Ahuja, M. C. Dillon, R. C. Carman, L. G. Eskew

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Micropropagation, Genetic Engineering, and Molecular Biology of Populus

First Page

161

Last Page

164

Publication Date

1997

Abstract

'Kitakami Hakuyou' are elite clones of hybrid aspen produced by Nippon Paper Industries (NPI) for commercial use. These elite clones were obtained by crossing 5 selected female trees of Populus sieboldii with a male elite tree of Canadian P. grandidentata, exhibit better growth features than other species or interspecific hybrids belonging to the section Leuce (currently termed Populus), and express significant heterosis (Takayama 1968). These characteristics make them well suited for afforestation and pulp wood in Japan. However, in some geographic areas, 'Kitakami Hakuyou' clones are extremely sensitive to crown gall disease, caused by Agrobacterium tumefaciens. This disease can cause considerable economical loss to nurseries growing rosaceous plants, Rubus species, grapevines, or various nut-bearing trees. The phytopathogenic bacterium, A. tumefaciens, infects a wide variety of dicotyledonous plants and induces tumors on the infected plants (Moore and Warren 1979). Because this bacterium provides a useful method to introduce desirable genes into plants, we have used biotechnology in an attempt to improve characteristics of 'Kitakami Hakuyou.' Our objective was to use an antisense DNA method to improve crown gall disease resistance in aspen clones (Ebinuma et al. 1991, 1992). In this paper, we report on the construction of plasmids containing antisense DNA, and on a highly efficient transformation procedure for hybrid aspens.

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