Isolation of embryo-specific mutants in Arabidopsis: plant transformation.

As a model system for efficient analysis of plant gene function, Arabidopsis can easily be transformed by Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer. Among the various transformation methods developed during the past two decades, the vacuum infiltration transformation and the floral dip method are most widely used. Compared with conventional plant transformation methods that involve tissue culture and plant regeneration, vacuum infiltration and the floral dip method require minimal time and labor; furthermore, these two high-throughput transformation procedures can also be used in insertional mutagenesis, one of the most powerful tools for studying gene function. Here, we outline a detailed description with various fine-tuned steps for these two Agrobacterium-mediated floral transformation methods in Arabidopsis.