Transformation of Plant Cell Suspension Cultures with Amine-Functionalized Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can be used as DNA delivery vectors to accomplish genetic transformation in plants. When multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are functionalized with aliphatic amines, their electrostatic affinity for nucleic acids increases depending on the amine attached. In this study, several solvent-free amine functionalizations of MWCNTs were tested for DNA delivery and expression into Nicotiana tabacum NT-1 cultured cells. The functionalized MWCNTs were unable to freely penetrate the cell wall of intact Nicotiana tabacum cells, but promoted transformation of cells undergoing plasmolysis and expression of the transgene. Importantly, the functionalized MWCNTs did not enhance plasmolysis in cultured cells and showed a high degree of biocompatibility. These results have important implications for plant biotechnology placing the amine-functionalized MWCNTs-mediated transformation as an attractive tool for reporter gene expression analysis at the level of plant cultured cells.