Rapid transformation and plant regeneration of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) mediated by altruistic Baby boom and Wuschel2

The standard stalwart Agrobacterium-mediated transformation protocols for sorghum use differentiating embryogenic callus induced from immature embryos in the genotype BTx430. While reliable, the standard protocols are lengthy, and both time and resource expensive. We have investigated the use of altruistic morphogenic regulator mediated transformation (MRMT) to improve sorghum transformation for use in genome editing. Here, we show a method for rapid transformation and plant regeneration of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. cultivar BTx430) mediated by altruistic Baby boom and Wuschel2. Confirming and extending previous recent work using altruistic MRMT, we show that the altruistic MRMT rapid protocol results in a higher transformation frequency expressed as a function of the number of independent events per immature embryos infected and requires less time in a transformation pipeline which translates to an increased number of constructs one full-time equivalent (FTE) can manage per yr. This approach is compatible with genome editing requirements and should help address the transformation bottleneck for functional genomics and genome editing studies in sorghum.

Automated summary

In this study, we investigated the use of altruistic morphogenic regulator mediated transformation (MRMT) to improve sorghum transformation for genome editing. We developed a rapid transformation protocol mediated by altruistic Baby boom and Wuschel2, which resulted in a higher transformation frequency and decreased time cost. This approach can help address the transformation bottleneck for functional genomics and genome editing studies in sorghum.