Gene Transfer to Plants by Lipofection and Electroporation

A great deal of interest exists in gene transfer and manipulation techniques for the predictable modification of plant genomes, in particular those of economically or nutritionally important plants. Such combinations, successful so far in prokaryotic systems, might improve lipofection as a tool for genetic engineering of plants as well. Electroporation has become a popular tool for introducing exogenous DNA into plant protoplasts. A classical example of the combination of the advantages of both liposome technology and electroporation has been described by P. Machy et al. Besides the wide utilization of electroporation for transient gene expression experiments, permanent transformation and viral RNA-mediated infection of plant protoplasts, the technique has been increasingly used for antisense RNA-mediated inhibition of gene expression. A wide array of transformation techniques is available, but there is to date no universal, ideal, generally applicable method for gene transfer to plants.