Abstract

Bryophytes are among the simplest and oldest of the terrestrial plants. Due to the special living environment and characteristics, bryophytes have become attractive experimental tools for the elucidation of complex biological processes in plants. Mosses grow rapidly when cultured on simple salt media, thereby making them ideal materials for metabolic studies, particularly transformation and gene homologous recombination. Thus, in recent times mosses such as Physcomitrella patens, Funaria hygrometrica, Ceratodon purpureus, and Tortula ruralis are being developed for genetic engineering studies. Recently, the finding of efficient homologous recombination of P. patens and yeast and murine cells could be comparable. So, the moss, P. patens has become an extremely powerful organism for the functional analysis of plant genes. In this report, we reviewed recent research progress so far made on genetic transformation of the bryophytes with emphasis on P. patens. We also discussed the advantages and limitation of bryophytes transformation.

Key words: Bryophytes, moss, genetic transformation, homologous recombination.

Abbreviation

PEG, Polyethylene glycol-mediated transformation; GUS, β-D-glucuronidase (GUS) gene; A.T., Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation; NM, not mentioned; G418, geneticin; APT, adenine phosphoribosyl transferase reporter gene; Hyg, hygromycin; Para, paramomycin; Spe,spectinomycin; GC–MS, gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy; Pr, protein assay; nptII, neomicin phosphotransferase II gene; uidA, GUS gene; aphIV, a type IV hygromycin phosphotransferase gene; hpt, hygromycin phosphotransferase gene;aadA, streptomycin resistance gene; TAIL-PCR, thermal asymmetric interlaced PCR;EYFP, yellow fluorescence protein gene; RAD51, an eukaryote gene.