Production of agronomically superior transgenic rice plants using Agrobacterium transformation methods: Present status and future perspectives

Almost ten years have elapsed since the initiation of experiments on rice t ransformation using Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Chen et al.(1) successfully transformed rice using this method, but transformation efficiency was low. After Hiei et al.(2) reported high efficiency of Agrobacterium-mediated pro duction of fertile and heritable transgenic rice plants, this technology wa s adopted by many laboratories and is now in widespread use. Agrobacterium- mediated transformation has several advantages, including higher transforma tion efficiency, ability to transfer large pieces of DNA with minimal rearr angement, integration of relatively lower number of transgene copies, and l ow experimental costs. The success and future prospects of this technique f or the genetic improvement of rice with respect to several agronomically im portant traits are addressed in this article.