Development of a cassava transformation system for the Southeast Asian elite variety

November 26, 2021

Contributing to breeding of useful cassava plants

An international joint research group of RIKEN CSRS, Agricultural Genetics Institute in Vietnam, and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center successfully developed a "plant transformation method" for an elite variety of Southeast Asian cassava.

To accelerate the process of plant molecular breeding, the genetic transformation is one of the most effective methods, which introduce target genes into the plants to give them new properties. While the transformation methods have been established for African cassava varieties, no methods have been developed for Southeast Asian varieties.

The international collaborative research group developed the technology for the first time to produce transgenic cassava plants in KU50, the most widely planted variety in Southeast Asia, using the method to induce Friable Embryogenic Callus (FEC) efficiently.

The results of this study are important for promoting cassava molecular breeding in Southeast Asia and will contribute to future basic research and development of useful cassava plants.

Original article
Plant Molecular Biology doi:10.1007/s11103-021-01212-1
Y. Utsumi, C. Utsumi, M. Tanaka, Y. Okamoto, S.i Takahashi, T. T. Huong, A. V. Nguyen, N. V. Dong, H. Tokunaga, N. Taylor, M. Seki,
"Agrobacterium-mediated cassava transformation for the Asian elite variety KU50".
Contact
Yoshinori Utsumi; Research Scientist
Motoaki Seki; Team Leader
Plant Genomic Network Research Team