Current Status of Binary Vectors and Superbinary Vectors

摘要

A binary vector was invented soon after it had been elucidated that crown gall tumorigenesis was caused by genetic transformation of plant cells with a piece of DNA, T-DNA for transferred DNA, from a Ti plasmid (tumor-inducing plasmid) harbored by the soil bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens (Fraley et al., 1986). A key finding was that the virulence genes, which are involved in the transfer of T-DNA, could be placed on a replicon separate from the one with T-DNA (Hoekema et al., 1983). Thus, combination of a "disarmed" strain, which carries a Ti plasmid without the wild-type T-DNA, and an artificial T-DNA within a plasmid that can be replicated both in Escherichia coli and A. tumefaciens turned out to be fully functional in plant transformation. The term "binary vector" literally refers to the entire combination, but the plasmid that carries the artificial T-DNA is usually called a binary vector. Now, binary vectors are the most popular tools in the plant science community.