Transformation of Medicago truncatula with rip1-GUS Gene

Medicago truncatula is a model plant for molecular genetic studies of legumes and plant-microbe interactions. To accelerate finding of genes that play roles in the early stages of nodulation and stress responses, a trans-genic plant was developed that contains a promoter­reporter fusion. The promoter of rip], a Rhizobium-induced peroxidase gene, was fused to the coding region of $\beta-glucuronidase (GUS)$ gene and inserted into a modified plant transformation vector, pSLJ525YN, in which the bar gene was preserved from the original plasmid but the neomycin phosphotransferase gene was replaced by a polylinker. Transformation of M. truncatula was carried out by vacuum infiltration of young seedlings with Agrobacterium. Despite low survival rates of infiltrated seedlings, three independent transformants were obtained from repeated experiments. Southern blot analyses revealed that 7 of 8 transgenic plants of the T 1 generation contained the bar gene whereas 6 $T_1$ plants contained the GUS gene. These results indicate that vacuum infiltration is an effective method for transformation of M. truncatula. The progeny seeds of the transgenic plants will be useful for mutagenesis and identification of genes that are placed upstream and may influence the expression of rip] in cellular signaling processes including nodulation.