Development of visual selection markers for plant transformation

Abstract

The generation of transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants relies heavily on the choice of selection markers. We investigated three potential visual seed-selection markers: the RUBY reporter, the amilCP chromoprotein, and the endogenous TTG1 gene. The RUBY reporter, which produces dark-red betalain pigment, successfully led to distinguishable seed color changes in Arabidopsis Col-0 and ttg1 mutant backgrounds. However, the use of the amilCP chromoprotein was limited by its low transformation efficiency and germination rate, likely due to its toxicity in plants. Attempts to use the TTG1 gene as an endogenous selection marker did not produce observable seed color changes in the first transgenic gen- eration, possibly due to insufficient TTG1 protein expression. Overall, this study demon- strates the potential of the RUBY reporter as an effective visual marker for seed selection and highlights the need to explore endogenous markers to improve the efficiency and con- venience of generating transgenic Arabidopsis plants.