You have identified a useful gene in bac | Class 12 Biology Chapter Biotechnology and its Application, Biotechnology and its Application NCERT Solutions

Many plants can be regenerated from the single somatic cell grown in culture, in this genetic manipulation is performed, which produces new plant with the new traits, also known as transgenic plants. The unusual DNA vector for moving genes into the plant cells is a plasmid of the bacterium, Agrobacterium tumefaciens shows genetic transformation which involves the Agrobacterium and the host. It involves T- DNA and various virulence genes and every gene has their specific role in this process. The DNA segment of this plasmid that integrates into the chromosomal DNA of its plant host cell is known as T- DNA. This uptake of genes by microbial and plant cells is known as transformation. Main steps in genetic engineering of plants are given below:

1. Important gene is identified and isolated.
2. Then, plasmid (circular, extrachromosomal, self-replicating DNA) is isolated from the bacterium, Agrobacterium tumefaciens.
3. Plant DNA that contains the gene of interest is integrated into the T- DNA of the plasmid by using enzyme restriction endonuclease (particular nucleotide sequence which is cut down at specific recognition sequence) and ligase enzyme (used to join the DNA molecules by making the Phosphodiester bond between the DNA at the two different molecules end).
4. Then this recombinant plasmid is introduced into the cultured plant cells.
5. T- DNA integrates into the plant cell’s chromosomal DNA.
6. When the cells of plant divides, each daughter cell receives a copy of T- DNA and also the gene of interest.
7. The cell give arise to plantlet that grows into a new plant with the new characters or traits.

Diagram representation of genetic engineering in plants: