THE SMALL, VERSATILE PPZP FAMILY OF AGROBACTERIUM BINARY VECTORS FOR PLANT TRANSFORMATION

The new pPZP Agrobacterium binary vectors are versatile, relatively sm all, stable and are fully sequenced. The vectors utilize the pTiT37 T- DNA border regions, the pBR322 born site for mobilization from Escheri chia coli to Agrobacterium, and the ColE1 and pVS1 plasmid origins for replication in E. coli and in Agrobacterium, respectively. Bacterial marker genes in the vectors confer resistance to chloramphenicol (pPZP 100 series) or spectinomycin (pPZP200 series), allowing their use in A grobacterium strains with different drug resistance markers. Plant mar ker genes in the binary vectors confer resistance to kanamycin or to g entamycin, and are adjacent to the left border (LB) of the transferred region. A lacZ or-peptide, with the pUC18 multiple cloning site (MCS) , lies between the plant marker gene and the right border (RB). Since the RB is transferred first, drug resistance is obtained only if the p assenger gene is present in the transgenic plants.