Plant Genetic Transformation Mediated with Agrobacterium tumefaciens

  Genetic transformation in plants is transferring foreign genes obtained from plants, viruses, bacteria, animals, or humans to a genome of a certain plant species. It could also be said to be a process for obtaining GMO crops. Foreign genes obtained from certain living things are molecularly engineered so that they can be inserted into the plant genome. Foreign genes resulting from genetic engineering that are inserted in certain plant species are called transgenes, so the plant is called transgenic plants. Thus, GMO plants can be defined as plants that have been inserted by foreign genes derived from other living things, can be plants, animals, or bacteria. The purpose of making GMO crops is to make a superior variety of plants.

                Genetic transformation in plants through Agrobacterium technology is known to be the easiest and cheapest compared to other technologies. Through this technology, there is a piece of DNA (called T-DNA) from plasmid DNA of Agrobacterium (carrying desired gene) inserts into the plant genome. The integration of DNA produces new plants with desired traits through the expression of the gene. This book reviews genetic transformation in plants, with mainly contain the results of research related to this topic done by authors.