Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated transformation of the oomycete plant pathogen Phytophthora infestans

Abstract

Agrobacterium tumefaciens is widely used for plant DNA transformation and, more recently, has also been used to transform yeast and filamentous fungi. Here we present a protocol for Agrobacterium-mediated DNA transformation of the oomycete Phytophthora infestans, the causal agent of potato late blight. Binary T-DNA vectors containing neomycin phosphotransferase (npt) and β-glucuronidase (gus) fused to oomycete transcriptional regulatory sequences were constructed. Seven days of co-cultivation followed by transfer to a selective medium containing cefotaxim to kill Agrobacterium and geneticin to select for transformants, resulted in geneticin resistant colonies. Under optimal conditions with Agrobacterium supplemented with a ternary plasmid carrying a constitutive virG gene and in the presence of acetosyringone as inducer, up to 30 transformants per 107 zoospores could be obtained. The majority of these transformants contained a single T-DNA copy randomly integrated at a chromosomal locus. Using a similar protocol, geneticin resistant transformants of two other oomycetes species were obtained, Phytophthora palmivora and Pythium ultimum.