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March 24, 2004
Cloning a Cold Tolerance Gene
Cloning a Cold Tolerance Gene in Agrobacterium for Citrus Transformation
Sravya Keremane, 13, Gainesville, Fla.
Finalist, Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge, 2003
Project background: Frost is a constant threat to the citrus trees in Sravya's home state. Studies have shown that tobacco plants transformed with the human gene Bcl-xl show tolerance to frost damage. Last year, Sravya cloned this gene in E. coli. This year, she worked toward crossing this gene with Agrobacterium.
Tactics and results: Sravya began by extracting Bcl-xl from the pGEM-T plasmid and placing it between a promoter and terminator to create a cassette necessary for insertion and proper functioning of the gene in an organism.
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| V. Miller |
The inserted gene and the genes around it were removed and placed in a plant transformation plasmid. This plasmid was then used to transform Agrobacterium, which can infect plants and facilitate the transfer of the cold tolerance gene cassette into citrus plants. Sravya's future plans are to use this Agrobacterium to develop a cold tolerant citrus.
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