Plant transformation vectors are plasmids that have been specifically designed to facilitate the generation of transgenic plants. The most commonly used plant transformation vectors are T-DNA binary vectors and are often replicated in both E. coli, a common lab bacterium, and Agrobacterium tumefaciens, a plant-virulent bacterium used to insert the recombinant DNA into plants.
Plant transformation vectors contain three key elements:
- Plasmids Selection (creating a custom circular strand of DNA)
- Plasmids Replication (so that it can be easily worked with)
- Transfer DNA (T-DNA) region (inserting the DNA into the agrobacteria)