Selectable Markers Miki 2004

Journal of Biotechnology 107 (2004) 193–232
Review
Selectable marker genes in transgenic plants:
applications, alternatives and biosafety
Brian Miki∗ , Sylvia McHugh
Research Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Room 2091, KW Neatby Bldg.,
CEF, 960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ont., Canada K1A 0C6
Received 18 July 2003; received in revised form 15 October 2003; accepted 27 October 2003
Abstract
Approximately fifty marker genes used for transgenic and transplastomic plant research or crop development have been
assessed for efficiency, biosafety, scientific applications and commercialization. Selectable marker genes can be divided into
several categories depending on whether they confer positive or negative selection and whether selection is conditional or
non-conditional on the presence of external substrates. Positive selectable marker genes are defined as those that promote the
growth of transformed tissue whereas negative selectable marker genes result in the death of the transformed tissue.
The positive selectable marker genes that are conditional on the use of toxic agents, such as antibiotics, herbicides or drugs were
the first to be developed and exploited. More recent developments include positive selectable marker genes that are conditional
on non-toxic agents that may be substrates for growth or that induce growth and differentiation of the transformed tissues.
Newer strategies include positive selectable marker genes which are not conditional on external substrates but which alter the
physiological processes that govern plant development.
A valuable companion to the selectable marker genes are the reporter genes, which do not provide a cell with a selective
advantage, but which can be used to monitor transgenic events and manually separate transgenic material from non-transformed
material. They fall into two categories depending on whether they are conditional or non-conditional on the presence of external
substrates. Some reporter genes can be adapted to function as selectable marker genes through the development of novel substrates.
Despite the large number of marker genes that exist for plants, only a few marker genes are used for most plant research and
crop development. As the production of transgenic plants is labor intensive, expensive and difficult for most species, practical
issues govern the choice of selectable marker genes that are used. Many of the genes have specific limitations or have not been
sufficiently tested to merit their widespread use. For research, a variety of selection systems are essential as no single selectable
marker gene was found to be sufficient for all circumstances. Although, no adverse biosafety effects have been reported for the
marker genes that have been adopted for widespread use, biosafety concerns should help direct which markers will be chosen for
future crop development. Common sense dictates that marker genes conferring resistance to significant therapeutic antibiotics
should not be used.
An area of research that is growing rapidly but is still in its infancy is the development of strategies for eliminating selectable
marker genes to generate marker-free plants. Among the several technologies described, two have emerged with significant
potential. The simplest is the co-transformation of genes of interest with selectable marker genes followed by the segregation of
the separate genes through conventional genetics. The more complicated strategy is the use of site-specific recombinases, under
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (B. Miki).
0168-1656/$ – see front matter © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jbiotec.2003.10.011
194 B. Miki, S. McHugh / Journal of Biotechnology 107 (2004) 193–232
the control of inducible promoters, to excise the marker genes and excision machinery from the transgenic plant after selection
has been achieved.
In this review each of the genes and processes will be examined to assess the alternatives that exist for producing transgenic
plants.
© 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Selectable marker genes; Transgenic plants; Biosafety
1. Introduction of transgenic crops were grown globally (James,

2002).
Breakthroughs in DNA cloning and sequencing All transformation systems for creating transgenic
technologies are yielding unprecedented amounts of plants require separate processes for introducing
information on the composition of genes and their cloned DNA into living plant cells, for identifying
regulatory elements as well as the structural elements or selecting those cells that have integrated the DNA
that give organization to the genomes of different or- into the appropriate plant genome (nuclear or plastid)
ganisms. The most powerful experiments for assessing and for regenerating or recovering fully developed
their function have used technologies for modifying plants from the transformed cell. Selectable marker
cloned sequences and inserting them into genomes of genes have been pivotal to the development of plant
diverse organisms to study the outcome on the trans- transformation technologies because the marker genes
genic organisms. This technology has made possible allow scientists to identify or isolate the cells that are
the construction of organisms with novel genes and expressing the cloned DNA and to monitor and select
regulatory sequences that are the products of experi- for the transformed progeny. As only a very small pro-
mental design rather than the products of evolutionary portion of cells are transformed in most experiments,
processes. Transgenic organisms allow scientists to the chances of recovering transgenic lines without
cross the physical and genetic barriers that separate selection are usually low. Since the selectable marker
pools of genes among organisms. A sampling of the gene is expected to function in a range of cell types,
plant molecular biology literature in 2002 revealed it is usually constructed as a chimeric gene using reg-
that transgenic plants are used as an important re- ulatory sequences that ensure constitutive expression
search tool in about a half of the refereed publications throughout the plant. The selectable marker gene is
(Table 1). The current economic growth in trans- usually co-transformed with a gene of interest. Once
genic crops is reflected in the global rate of adoption the transgenic plant has been generated, characterized
for the major commodities in 2002. These are soy- and bred through conventional genetic crosses, the
bean (51%), cotton (20%), canola (12%) and corn selectable marker gene generally no longer serves
(9%) (James, 2002). In 2002, 58.7 million hectares an essential purpose. If the selectable markers are to
Table 1
Utilization of transgenic plants and selectable marker genes in papers published in selected journals in 2002
Journals Plant Cell Plant Molecular Molecular Transgenic
(%) Biology (%) Breeding (%) Researcha (%)
Papers using transgenic plants 56 39 76 52
Kanamycin resistance 56 70 44 61
Hygromycin resistance 20 21 31 19
Phosphinothricin resistance 20 4 17 19
Other herbicide resistance (chlorsulfuron or glyphosate) 1 4 3 –
Other selection strategies 1 2 3 –
The papers did not include Arabidopsis T-DNA mutants. Approximately 450 papers were examined.
a Transgenic Research publishes in both plant and animal science.
B. Miki, S. McHugh / Journal of Biotechnology 107 (2004) 193–232 195
remain expressed within the transgenic plant, it is lar Breeding and Transgenic Research, revealed that
important for both scientific and economic reasons three selection systems were employed in over 90%
that the selectable marker gene does not have broad of the scientific publications. These were selection on
pleiotropic effects. Consequently, the use of biologi- the antibiotics kanamycin or hygromycin and the her-
cal processes that are foreign to plants and that have a bicide phosphinothricin (Table 1). An examination of
high level of enzyme specificity was initially adopted. the selectable marker genes used in commercial trans-
The questions that relate to the biosafety of the se- genic varieties showed that selectable markers that
lectable marker genes are the same as those that re- confer resistance to kanamycin or phosphinothricin
late to other genes associated with plants, humans and were the most common (Table 2). In confined field
our environments: Do they code for toxic products trials the incidence of hygromycin selection was also
or allergens? Will they create unwanted changes in very high (Table 3). As herbicide resistance provides
the composition of the plant? Will they compromise a natural selectable marker system, herbicide-resistant
the use of therapeutic drugs? Will there be horizon- lines and varieties can usually be produced without
tal gene transfer to relevant organisms and pathogens? the need for other selectable marker genes (Tables 2
Can gene transfer to other plants create new weeds and 3). The popularity of these selection systems re-
or compromise the value of non-target crops? Clearly, flects the efficiency and general applicability of their
there is no single answer and every gene has to be as- use across a wide range of species and regenerable tis-
sessed individually. A variety of strategies are being sue culture systems. In a search for greater efficiency
developed to eliminate marker genes after the selec- and freedom to operate, almost fifty different selec-
tion phase of plant production to create marker-free tion systems have been reported but few have reached
transgenic plants or to restrict pollen flow from trans- practical application. For the sequential pyrimiding of
genic plants. Once again the need for the adoption of transgenes into plants the use of a variety of efficient
these strategies depends on the gene of interest that is selectable marker genes is the easiest experimental
being co-transformed with the marker gene as well as approach for most research labs. Vectors have been
the characteristics of the particular marker gene. developed for this purpose with different selectable
In this comprehensive review, we will examine the marker genes (Barrell et al., 2002); however, a variety
full range of selectable marker genes that have been of other strategies are being developed which include
developed for use in transformation systems for pro- co-transformation or marker gene excision and gene
ducing transgenic plants, what we know about their targeting (reviewed by Ow, 2002).
characteristics and their use in crop plants. We will re- The terminology used in the plant literature to de-
view the information that is available on the biosafety scribe selection systems has been confusing and at
of various selectable marker genes and examine the times inconsistent with terminology used with other
status of systems for creating marker-free transgenic organisms. We have adopted the terminology of pos-
plants. This information needs to be examined in order itive and negative, conditional and non-conditional
to assess the alternatives that are available or that must selection systems to accurately describe the various
be developed for generating safe transgenic plants for systems for plants and to be consistent with the broader
research and commercialization. use of the terminology across organisms (Babwah and
Waddell, 2000).
Positive selection systems are those that promote
2. Selectable marker gene systems the growth of transformed cells. They may be divided
into conditional-positive or non-conditional-positive
2.1. Background selection systems. A conditional-positive selection
system consists of a gene coding for a protein, usually
As no single selection system is adequate for an enzyme, that confers resistance to a specific sub-
all purposes, there is a need for several systems. strate that is toxic to untransformed plant cells or that
An examination of the scientific literature from the encourages growth and/or differentiation of the trans-
year 2002 appearing in the peer-reviewed journals formed cells. In plant conditional-positive selection
The Plant Cell, Plant Molecular Biology, Molecu- systems the substrate may act in one of several ways.
Table 2
Selectable markers in genetically modified crops with approvals for commercial use (information extracted from AGBIOS, 2003)
Crop Identifier Phenotypic trait Selectable markersa
(gene–enzyme)
Beta vulgaris (sugar beet) GTSB77 (InVigorTM ) Glyphosate herbicide resistance uidA–GUS
T120-7 Phosphinothricin herbicide resistance, neo–NPTII
specifically glufosinate ammonium
Brassica napus (canola, 23-18-17, 23-198 High laurate and myristate canola neo–NPTII
oilseed rape)
GT200 (Roundup Glyphosate herbicide resistance CP4 epsps–EPSPS,
Ready® ) goxv247–GOX
GT73, RT73 (Roundup Glyphosate herbicide resistance CP4 epsps–EPSPS,
Ready® ) goxv247–GOX
HCN10 (Liberty-LinkTM Phosphinothricin herbicide resistance, pat–PAT
Independence) specifically glufosinate ammonium
HCN92 (Liberty LinkTM Phosphinothricin herbicide resistance, pat–PAT, neo–NPTII
Innovator) specifically glufosinate ammonium
HCN28 Phosphinothricin herbicide resistance, pat–PAT
MS1, RF1 → PGS1 Male sterility, fertility restoration, neo–NPTII, bar–PAT
pollination control, glufosinate
herbicide resistance
MS1, RF2→PGS2 Male sterility, fertility restoration, neo–NPTII, bar–PAT
MS8 X RF3 Male sterility, fertility restoration, bar–PAT
OXY-235 Tolerance to herbicides bromoxynil bxn–nitrilase
and ioxynil
PHY 14, PHY35 male sterility, fertility restoration, bar–PAT
phosphinothricin herbicide resistance
PHY36 Male sterility, fertility restoration, bar–PAT
phophinothricin herbicide resistance
Carica papaya (papaya) 55-1/63-1 Papaya ringspot virus resistance uidA–GUS,
neo–NPTII
Cichorium intybus RM3-3, RM3-4, RM3-6 Male sterility, phosphinothricin neo–NPTII, bar–PAT
(chicory) herbicide tolerance, specifically
glufosinate ammonium
Cucumis melo A, B Delayed ripening neo–NPTII
(cantaloupe)
Cucurbita pepo (squash) CZW-3 Resistance to cucumber mosaic virus, neo–NPTII
watermelon mosaic virus, zucchini
yellow mosaic virus
ZW20 Resistance to watermelon mosaic virus neob –NPTII
and zucchini yellow mosaic virus
Dianthus caryophyllus 4, 11, 15, 16 Modified flower colour, sulfonylurea surB–ALS
(carnation) herbicide resistance
66 Delayed senescence, sulfonylurea surB–ALS
959A, 988A, 1226A, Modified flower colour, sulfonylurea surB–ALS
1351A, 1363A,1400A herbicide resitance
Table 2 (Continued )
(gene–enzyme)
Glycine max L. (soybean) A2704-12, A2704-21, Phosphinothricin herbicide tolerance, pat–PAT
A5547-35 specifically glufosinate ammmonium
A5547-127 Phosphinothricin herbicide tolerance, pat–PAT, blac
specifically glufosinate ammmonium
GU262 Phosphinothricin herbicide tolerance, pat–PAT, blac
G94-1, G94-19, G168 Modified fatty acid content, uidA–GUS, blac
specifically high oleic acid
GTS 40-3-2 (Roundup Glyphosate herbicide tolerance CP4 epsps–EPSPS
Ready® )
W62, W98 Phosphinothricin herbicide tolerance uidA–GUS
Gossypium hirsutum L. MON-15985-7 (Bollgard II® ) Resistance to lepidopteran insects neo–NPTII,
(cotton) uidA–GUS, aadc
19-51A Sulfonylurea herbicide resistance als (S4-HrA)–ALS
31807/31808 Resistance to lepidopteran insects, neo–NPTII
oxynil herbicide resistance
BXN Oxynil herbicide tolerance neo–NPTII
MON 1445/1698 (Roundup Glyphosate herbicide tolerance neo–NPTII, aadc
Ready® )
MON 531/757/1076 Resistance to lepidopteran insects neo–NPTII, aadc
(Bollgard® )
Linum usitatissimum L. FP967 Sulfonylurea herbicide resistance neo–NPTII, nos–NOS
(flax, linseed) blac , spcc
Lycopersicon esculentum 1345-4 Increased shelf life (delayed ripening) neo–NPTII
(tomato)
35 1 N Delayed ripening neo–NPTII
5345 Resistance to lepidopteran insects neo–NPTII, aadc
8338 Delayed ripening neo–NPTII
B, Da, F Delayed softening neo–NPTII
FLAVR SAVR Delayed softening neo–NPTII
Nicotiana tabacum C/F/93/08-02 oxynil herbicide tolerance bxn–nitrilase
(tobacco)
Oryza sativa (rice) LLRICE06, LLRICE62 Phosphinothricin herbicide tolerance, bar–PAT
(Liberty-LinkTM ) specifically glufosinate ammmonium
Solanum tuberosum ATBT04-6, ATBT04-27, Resistance to colorado potato beetle neo–NPTII
(potato) ATBT04-30, ATBT04-31,
ATBT04-36, SPBT02-5,
SPBT02-7 (Atlantic and
Superior NewLeaf® )
BT6, BT10, BT12, BT16, resistance to colorado potato beetle neo–NPTII
BT17,BT18, BT23 (Russet
Burbank NewLeaf® )
RBMT21-129, Resistance to colorado potato beetle, neo–NPTII, CP4
RBMT21-350, RBMT22-082 resistance to potato leafroll luteovirus epsps (in RBMT22-82
(Russet Burbank NewLeaf® only)
Plus)
RBMT15-101, SEMT15-02, Resistance to colorado potato beetle, neo–NPTII, aadc
SEMT15-15 (NewLeaf® Y) resistance to potato virus Y
Zea mays (maize) 176 (NaturGard TM , Resistance to european corn borer, bar–PAT, blac
KnockoutTM ) phosphinothricin herbicide tolerance
Table 2 (Continued )
(gene–enzyme)
676, 678, 680 Male sterility, phosphinothricin pat–PAT
B16 (DLL25) Phosphinothricin herbicide tolerance, bar–PAT, blac
BT11 (X4334CBR, Resistance to european corn borer, pat–PAT
X4734CBR) phosphinothricin herbicide tolerance
CBH-351 (StarLinkTM ) Resistance to european corn borer, bar–PAT, blac
phosphinothricin herbicide tolerance
DBT418 (Bt XtraTM ) Resistance to european corn borer, bar–PAT, blac
GA21 (Roundup Ready® ) Glyphosate herbicide resistance m-epsps-modified
maize EPSPS
MON80100 Resistance to european corn borer CP4 epsps–EPSPS,
goxv247–GOX, neoc
MON802 (Yeildgard® ) Resistance to european corn borer, CP4 epsps–EPSPS,
glyphosate herbicide tolerance goxv247–GOX, neoc
MON809 Resistance to european corn borer CP4 epsps–EPSPS,
goxv247–GOX
MON810 (Yeildgard® ) Resistance to european corn borer CP4 epsps–EPSPSb ,
goxv247–GOXb
MON832 Glyphosate herbicide tolerance CP4 epsps–EPSPS,
goxv247–GOX, neoc
MON863 Resistance to corn root worm neo–NPTII
MS3 (InVigorTM ) Male sterility, phosphinothricin bar–PAT, blac
herbicide resistance specifically
MS6 (InVigorTM ) Male sterility, phosphinothricin bar–PAT, blac
herbicide resistance specifically
NK603 (Roundup Ready® ) Glyphosate herbicide tolerance CP4 epsps–EPSPS
T14, T25 (Liberty-LinkTM ) Phosphinothricin herbicide resistance, pat–PAT, blac
TC1507 (HerculexTM I) Resistance to european corn borer, pat–PAT
a Abbreviations: EPSPS, 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase; GOX, glyphosate oxidoreductase; GUS, ␤-glucuronidase, NPTII,
neomycin phosphtransferase II; NOS, nopaline synthase; PAT, phosphinothricin N-acetyl transferase.
b Marker was used for selection but was segregated away in the final product.
c bla, aad, and in certain cases neo are under the control of bacterial promoters and were used for bacterial selection. They are not
expressed in plant cells.
It may be an antibiotic (Table 4), a herbicide (Table 5), cells. There is a concern that the transformation effi-
a drug or metabolite analogue (Table 6) or a carbon ciencies are suboptimal with toxic substrates because
supply or phytohormone precursor (Table 7). In each dying untransformed cells may inhibit transformed
case the gene codes for an enzyme with specificity cells from proliferating by secreting inhibitors or pre-
to a substrate to encourage the selective growth and venting transport of essential nutrients to the living
proliferation of the transformed cells. The substrate transformed cells (Hardrup et al., 1998a). The manA
may be toxic or non-toxic to the untransformed cells. gene, which codes for phosphomannose isomerase, is
The nptII gene, which confers kanamycin resistance an example of a conditional-positive selection system
by inhibiting protein synthesis (Table 4), is the classic where the selection substrate is not toxic (Table 7).
example of a system that is toxic to untransformed In this system, the substrate mannose is unable to
Table 3 the erroneous implication is that systems, such as the

Marker genes listed in US field test notifications and release per- nptII gene, are negative selection systems because
mits for the years 2001 and 2002 (data extracted from ISB, 2003)
toxic selective agents are used (Joersbo and Okkels,
Enzyme Number of records in 1996).
2001 and 2002 Non-conditional-positive selection systems do not
Neomycin phosphotransferase II 949 require external substrates yet promote the selective
Hygromycin B phosphotransferase 65
growth and differentiation of transformed material. An
Phosphinothricin N-acetyltransferase 327
5-Enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate 507 example is the ipt gene that enhances shoot develop-
synthase ment by modifying the plant hormone levels endoge-
Acetolactate synthase or 5 nously (Table 8). As these selectable markers often
acetohydroxyacid synthase alter cell division and differentiation there is a signif-
Nitrilase 0
icant alteration in the morphology, development and
Cyanamide hydratase 2
␤-Glucuronidase 91 physiology of the transgenic plant. Strategies are there-
Luciferase 4 fore needed to limit the expression of the markers by
Green fluorescent protein 20 using inducible promoters or by creating marker-free
plants.
Negative selection systems have been described
act as a carbon source for untransformed cells but in plants for genes that result in the death of
it will promote the growth of cells transformed with transformed cells. These are dominant selectable
manA. In the literature, the positive nature of this se- marker systems that may be described as conditional
lection strategy, has been emphasized. Unfortunately, and non-conditional selection systems. When the
Table 4
Toxic antibiotics and selectable marker genes used for the conditional-positive selection of transgenic and transplastomic plants
Antibiotics Genes Enzymes Sources Genome References
Neomycin neo, nptII Neomycin Escherichia coli Tn5 Nuclear Fraley et al., 1983
Kanamycin (aphA2), Phosphotransferases Plastid Carrer et al., 1993
Paramomycin, G418 nptI (aphA1) Escherichia coli Tn601
Aminoglycosidesa aaC3 Aminoglycoside-N-acetyl Serratia marcesens Nuclear Hayford et al., 1988
transferases
aaC4 Klebsiella pneumoniae
6 gat Shigella sp. Gossele et al., 1994
Spectinomycin aadA Aminoglycoside-3 - Shigella sp. Nuclear Svab et al., 1990
Adenyl transferase Plastid Svab and Maliga, 1993
Spectinomycin SPT Streptomycin Tn5 Nuclear Maliga et al., 1988
Streptomycin Phosphotransferase
Hygromycin B hph (aphIV) Hygromycin Escherichia coli Nuclear Waldron et al., 1985
Phosphotransferase
Bleomycin Ble Bleomycin resistance Escherichia coli Tn5 Nuclear Hille et al., 1986
Phleomycin Streptoalloteichus Perez et al., 1989
hindustanus
Sulfonamides sulI Dihydropteroate synthase Escherichia coli pR46 Nuclear Guerineau et al., 1990
Streptothricin sat3 Acetyl transferase Streptomyces sp Nuclear Jelenska et al., 2000
Chloramphenicol cat Chloramphenicol Escherichia coli Tn5 Nuclear DeBlock et al., 1984
acetyl transferase
Phage p1cm Plastid DeBlock et al., 1985
a Aminoglycosides include kanamycin, neomycin, geneticin (G418), paramomycin gentamicin, tobramycin, apramycin, depending on
the specificities of the enzymes.
Table 5
Toxic herbicides and selectable marker genes used for the conditional-positive selection of transgenic plants
Herbicides Genes Enzyme Source Genome References
Phosphinothricin pat, bar Phosphinothricin acetyl Streptomyces hygroscopicus, Nuclear DeBlock et al., 1989
transferase Streptomyces viridochromogenes
Tu494
Glyphosate EPSP synthase 5-Enolpyruvylshikimate-3- Petunia hybrida, Zea mays Nuclear Zhou et al., 1995;
phosphate synthase Howe et al., 2002
aroA Salmonella typhimurium, Comai et al., 1988;
Escherichia coli della Cioppa et al., 1987
cp4 epsps Agrobacterium tumefaciens Barry et al., 1992
gox Glyphosate oxidoreductase Ochrobactrum anthropi Barry et al., 1992
Sulfonylureas csr1-1 Acetolactate synthase Arabidopsis thaliana Nuclear Olszewski et al., 1988
Imidazolinones csr1-2 Acetolactate synthase Arabidopsis thaliana Nuclear Aragao et al., 2000
Oxynils bnx Bromoxynil nitrilase Klebsiella pneumoniae Nuclear Freyssinet et al., 1996
subspecies ozanaenae
Gabaculine hemL Glutamate-1-semialdehyde Synechococcus PCC6301 Nuclear Gough et al., 2001
aminotransferase
Cyanamide cah Cyanamide hydratase Myrothecium verrucaria Nuclear Damm, 1998;
Weeks et al., 2000
Table 6
Toxic drugs, metabolite analogues and enzymes used for the conditional-positive selection of transgenic plants
Drugs and analogues Genes Enzymes Sources Genome References
2-Deoxyglucose DOGR 1 2-Deoxyglucose-6-phosphate Saccharomyces cerevisiae Nuclear Kunze et al., 2001

phosphatase
Betaine aldehyde BADH Betaine aldehyde Spinacia oleracea Nuclear, Ursin, 1996;
dehydrogenase plastid Daniell et al., 2001
S-Aminoethyl DHPS Dihydropicolinate synthase, Escherichia coli, Nuclear Perl et al., 1993;
l-cysteine (AEC) ocs Octopine synthase Agrobacterium tumefaciens Koziel et al., 1984
4-Methyltryptophan TDC Tryptophan decarboxylase Catharanthus roseus Nuclear Goddijn et al., 1993
(4-mT)
Methotrexate DHFR Dihydrofolate reductase Escherichia coli mouse Nuclear Herrera-Estrella et al., 1983;
Eichholtz et al., 1987
Candida albicans Nuclear Irdani et al., 1998
selection system is not substrate dependent, it is a ase to ablate specific cell types (Mariani et al.,
non-conditional-negative selection system (Babwah 1990).
and Waddell, 2000). An example is the expres- When the action of the toxic gene requires a sub-
sion of a toxic protein, such as a ribonucle- strate to express toxicity, the system is a conditional
Table 7
Non-toxic agents and enzymes used for the conditional-positive selection of transgenic plants
Non-toxic agents Genes Enzymes Sources Genome References
d-Xylose xylA Xylose isomerase Streptomyces rubignosus, Nuclear Haldrup et al., 1998a;
Thermoanaerobacterium sulfurogenes Haldrup et al., 1998b
d-Mannose manA (pmi) Phosphomannose Escherichia coli Nuclear Joersbo et al., 1998
isomerase
Benzyladenine-N- uidA(gusA) ␤-Glucuronidase Escherichia coli Nuclear Joersbo and Okkels, 1996
3-glucuronide
Table 8
Enzymes used for the non-conditional-positive selection of transgenic plants
Selective Genes Enzymes Sources Genomes References
agent
None ipt, Isopentyl transferases Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Nuclear Endo et al., 2001;
pga 22 Arabidopsis thaliana Zuo et al., 2002a
None rol “Hairy root”phenotype Agrobacterium rhizogenes Nuclear Ebinuma et al., 2001
None ESR1 Transcription factor Arabidopsis thaliana Nuclear Banno and Chua, 2002
(enhancer of shoot
regeneration 1)
None CKI1 Histidine kinase Arabidopsis thaliana Nuclear Zuo et al., 2002a
(cytokinin-independent 1)
negative selection system (Babwah and Waddell, One cannot assume that plant resistance to a se-
2000). Some conditional-negative selection systems lective agent conferred by a specific gene will re-
used in plants are described in Table 9. They in- sult in a good selectable marker gene system just
clude the bacterial codA gene, which codes for cy- because highly-resistant plants can be obtained.
tosine deaminase (Stougaard, 1993), the bacterial For example the bacterial gene tfdA, which codes
cytochrome P450 mono-oxygenase gene (Koprek for 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetate mono-oxygenase
et al., 1999), the bacterial haloalkane dehalogenase (DPAM), confers high levels of resistance to the syn-
gene (Naested et al., 1999), or the Arabidopsis alcohol thetic auxin 2,4-D but it is completely ineffective as
dehydrogenase gene (Lopez-Juez et al., 1998). Each a selectable marker gene in tobacco leaf disc trans-
of these converts non-toxic agents to toxic agents re- formation and for selection of transgenic seedlings in
sulting in the death of the transformed cells. The codA germination assays (Streber and Willmitzer, 1989).
gene has also been shown to be an effective dominant To be effective, a selectable marker gene system must
negative selection marker for chloroplast transforma- encourage the selective growth and differentiation of
tion (Serino and Maliga, 1997). The Agrobacterium the transformed tissue in addition to providing resis-
aux2 and tms2 genes are interesting in that they can tance to a substrate. It is commonly found that some
also be used in positive selection systems. Combi- conditional-positive selection systems will be more
nations of positive-negative selection systems may effective in certain plant species and regeneration
be invaluable for enriching certain kinds of events in systems than others. An example is the lower effi-
plant cells, such as gene targeting (Thykjaer et al., ciency of kanamycin resistance as a selection system
1997) and for screening against certain genetic events. in cereals than in dicots.
Table 9
Chemicals and enzymes for the conditional-negative selection of transgenic tissues
Substrates Genes Enzymes Sources Genome References
5-Fluorocytosine codA Cytosine deaminase Escherichia coli Nuclear, Stougaard, 1993;

plastid Serino and Maliga, 1997
Naphthalene acetamide aux2 Amido hydrolase Agrobacterium rhizogenes Nuclear Beclin et al., 1993
Indole-3-acetamide tms 2 Indoleacetic acid Agrobacterium tumefaciens Depicker et al., 1988
hydrolase
Dihaloalkanes dhlA Dehalogenase Xanthobacter autotrophicus Nuclear Naested et al., 1999
Sulfonylurea R7402 CYP105A Cytochrome P450 Streptomyces griseolus Nuclear O’Keefe et al., 1994
mono-oxygenase
Allyl alcohol cue Alcohol dehydrogenase Arabidopsis thaliana Nuclear Lopez-Juez et al., 1998
2.2. Conditional-positive selection systems using and ATP-dependent O-adenylation by nucleotidyl-

antibiotics transferases.
All of the effective sources of antibiotic resistance 2.2.1.1. Aminoglycoside-O-phosphotransferases.

that have been used to develop selectable marker
genes for transgenic plants have been taken from bac- Neomycin phosphotransferase. Bacterial amino-
terial sources (Table 4). The genes require regulatory glycoside 3 -phosphotransferase II (APH [3 ] II, E.C
sequences that are functional in plants and therefore 2.7.1.95), also known as neomycin phosphotrans-
all are chimeric structures. Some of the genes can ferase II (NPTII), was shown to be effective as a
act as selectable markers for both the nuclear and selectable marker in mammalian and yeast cells,
plastid genomes; however, they require separate reg- therefore it was the first to be tested in plants. Since
ulatory sequences (Cheung et al., 1988). In plastids, that time it has become the most widely used se-
the selectable marker genes are targeted to favourable lectable marker system in plants. NPTII catalyses the
sites within the plastid genome by homologous re- ATP-dependent phosphorylation of the 3 -hydroxyl
combination (Svab and Maliga, 1993). In the nucleus, group of the amino-hexose portion of certain amino-
the insertions are random and therefore subject to glycosides including neomycin, kanamycin, geneticin
position effects; however, technologies for targeted (G418), and paramomycin. The nptII (also known as
insertions are being developed (reviewed by Ow, neo) gene from Escherichia coli transposon Tn5 was
2002). first used to construct chimeric genes for constitutive
expression in plants by fusing it with the 5 and 3 reg-
2.2.1. Aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes ulatory sequences of the A. tumefaciens T-DNA gene
The aminoglycoside antibiotics include a number nopaline synthase (nos). It was shown to be efficient in
of molecules (e.g. kanamycin, neomycin, gentamicin the selection of transformed petunia or tobacco cells
derivative G418, paromomycin) that are very toxic to on kanamycin or G418 (Fraley et al., 1983; Bevan
plant, animal and fungal cells (reviewed by Nap et al., et al., 1983; Herrera-Estrella et al., 1983). To a lesser
1992). Kanamycin, which has played a prominent role extent the chimeric nptI gene from Tn601 was also
in the development of plant transformation technolo- effective (Fraley et al., 1983). The nptII gene used in
gies, is produced by the soil actinomycete Strepto- many plant selectable marker constructs, contained
myces kanamyceticus as a trisaccharide composed of a mutation in the coding region that reduced the en-
a deoxystreptamine and two glucosamines. Neomycin zyme activity of NPTII (Yenofsky et al., 1990). This
is a tetrasaccharide produced by another actinomycete, mutation has subsequently been corrected in some
Streptomyces fragdiae. These antibiotics inhibit pro- vectors (Datla et al., 1991). Research applications
tein synthesis in bacteria by binding to the ribosomal using nptII gene constructs have also diversified. For
subunits and similarly inhibit protein synthesis in eu- example, gene tagging experiments have been con-
karyote plastids and mitochondria. ducted in which promoterless nptII genes have been
A variety of aminoglycoside-modifying en- inserted randomly into Nicotiana plumbaginifolia and
zymes are commonly found among bacteria and Nicotiana tabacum. Selection on kanamycin was used
antibiotic-producing actinomycetes and are usually to recover insertions into expressed genes or gene
encoded on extrachromasomal elements such as regulatory elements to probe the plant genome for
bacterial plasmids and transposons. Consequently, new and novel genes and regulatory elements that are
aminoglycoside resistance is prevalent among soil not accessible through conventional cloning strategies
and enteric microbes (reviewed by Nap et al., 1992; (Andre et al., 1986; Teeri et al., 1986).
Shaw et al., 1993; Davies and Wright, 1997). Three Regulation of nptII expression may be changed in
major classes of aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes various ways to alter the selection conditions. Ele-
have been used to create selection systems for vation of transcription levels with strong promoters,
plants; they confer resistance through ATP-dependent like the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter or the
O-phosphorylation by phosphotransferases, acetyl enhanced 35S promoter, raised the level of NPTII
CoA-dependent N-acetylation by acetyltransferases enzyme activity and tolerance to kanamycin without
creating instability in the expression of the nptII gene There have been no reports of adverse effects of
(Sanders et al., 1987; Kay et al., 1987). A potential either NPTII or the nptII gene on humans, animals or
problem with the 35S promoter is that, in addition to the environment (Flavell et al., 1992; US FDA, 1998;
plants, it functions in bacteria, such as E. coli and A. European Federation of Biotechnology, 2001).
tumefaciens. The same is true for the nopaline syn- Generally, the amount of NPTII protein expressed
thase promoter (nos) which was used in many early in plants is low ranging, for example, from 0.00005
vector constructs. Furthermore, the 35S promoter is to 0.001% of the fresh weight of cotton seed, potato
active in fungi and endophytic bacteria that colo- tuber or tomato fruit. To obtain enough protein for
nize plants (discussed in Maas et al., 1997). There safety assessments, the protein was expressed in E.
is a concern that expression in microorganisms may coli and purified (Fuchs et al., 1993a). Studies with
interfere with the study of the early events in transfor- mice revealed that NPTII degraded rapidly in simu-
mation (Vancanneyt et al., 1990) and raises concerns lated gastric and intestinal fluids suggesting that the
about horizontal transfer of the nptII gene (Libiakova use of aminoglycoside antibiotics would not be com-
et al., 2001). The insertion of plant introns, such as promised and that allergic responses would be unlikely
intron 3 from the bean storage protein gene, phase- (Fuchs et al., 1993b). Furthermore, consumption of
olin, into the nptII gene sequence has been shown massive dosages of NPTII did not generate ill effects
to limit expression to the plant (Paszkowski et al., on the health of mice (Fuchs et al., 1993b). NPTII has
1992). Furthermore, intron 2 from the potato ST-LS1 been approved by the US Food and Drug Administra-
gene was found to limit nptII expression to dicots and tion (FDA) as a food additive for tomato, cotton and
monocots (Maas et al., 1997) without reducing to- oilseed rape (US FDA, 1994). Because of the rela-
bacco or potato transformation efficiency (Libiakova tive toxicity of kanamycin and neomycin and the wide
et al., 2001). Other introns, such as intron 1 of the spread resistance to these antibiotics, they are rarely
maize Shrunken 1 (Sh 1) gene, limited expression used for human therapy. A 1993 WHO workshop con-
selectively to monocots (Maas et al., 1997). These ex- cluded that the use of the nptII marker gene in genet-
periments demonstrate that the regulatory sequences ically modified plants posed no risks to human health
fused to selectable marker genes are very important (WHO, 1993).
for maximizing efficiency for specific plants. An assessment of the ecological impact of the use
The nptII gene is the most frequently used se- of the nptII gene in crops has been discussed at length
lectable marker gene for generating transgenic plants by Nap et al. (1992). It seems that the amount of free
for research purposes. An examination of research kanamycin accumulating in soils, through the action
publications from the year 2002 appearing in the of microorganisms or animal feces, is restricted by
peer-reviewed journals, The Plant Cell, Plant Molec- absorption to soil components so that no direct selec-
ular Biology, Molecular Breeding and Transgenic Re- tion pressure for kanamycin resistant plants can oc-
search, revealed that 44–77% of the studies that used cur. Changes to the genotype of transgenic plants are
transgenic plants used the nptII gene as the selectable limited and enhancement of physiological fitness re-
marker (Table 1). The gene is very efficient in model sulting from pleiotropic effects of nptII expression has
research species such as Arabidopsis and tobacco, not been documented.
which represent 15–73% of the dicot species or rice All of the above studies addressed nptII expression
and maize, which are the most common monocots used in the nuclear genome. Low levels of kanamycin can
in published studies (4–33%). A review of field trial also be used to select for transformation of the chloro-
notifications and permits in the US in 2001 and 2002 plast genome. The promoter Prrn , which is the strong
shows that nptII is the most widely used selectable constitutive promoter of the rRNA operon, was fused
marker in transgenic crops (Table 3). It is found in transcriptionally to the 5 untranslated region and the
many of the crops currently approved for commercial first five codons of the rbcL gene (Carrer et al., 1993).
production (Table 2). International regulatory agen- The efficiency of selection is about 3–20-fold lower
cies have approved the commercial release of geneti- than with the aadA gene (see below) as the toxicity of
cally modified oilseed rape, corn, potato, tomato, flax, kanamycin to plant cells does not allow sufficient time
chicory and cotton containing the nptII gene (Table 2). for the transplastome to replicate and distribute over
several cell divisions (Carrer et al., 1993). Eventually, 2.2.1.2. Aminoglycoside-N-acetyltransferases. The
amplification of the inserted nptII gene will achieve aminoglycoside-N-acetyl transferases (AAC) are an-
10,000 copies per cell and accumulate NPTII up to other class of aminoglycoside-modifying enzyme
1% of total soluble protein (Carrer et al., 1993). with potential to act as plant selectable marker genes
(reviewed by Nap et al., 1992). Two of these enzymes,
Hygromycin phosphotransferase. Hygromycin AAC(3)-III and AAC(3)-IV, have been examined in
B is an aminocyclitol antibiotic inhibitor of pro- petunia and Arabidopsis under the control of the 35S
tein synthesis with a broad spectrum activity against promoter and nos 3 sequences (Hayford et al., 1988).
prokaryotes and eukaryotes. In plants, the antibiotic These enzymes acetylate gentamicin, kanamycin, to-
is very toxic. The E. coli gene aphIV (hph, hpt), cod- bramycin, neomycin and paromomycin. AAC(3)-IV
ing for hygromycin B phosphotransferase (HPT, E.C. additionally modifies apramycin and G418. Both
2.7.1.119), confers resistance on bacteria, fungi, ani- genes conferred high levels of resistance to gentam-
mal cells and plant cells (discussed in Waldron et al., icin in petunia; however, the level of cross resistance
1985; van den Elzen et al., 1985) by detoxifying to kanamycin by AAC(3)-IV was marginal (Hayford
hygromycin B via an ATP-dependent phosphoryla- et al., 1988). The gene was effective in a variety of
tion of a 7 -hydroxyl group. Chimeric genes have plants including Brassica napus, Nicotiana tabacum
been shown to be effective in selection with diverse and tomato (Hayford et al., 1988).
plant species, including dicots, monocots and gym- Another enzyme that acetylates the 6 amino group,
nosperms (Ortiz et al., 1996; Tian et al., 2000). This aminoglycoside-6 -N-acetyltransferase (AAC(6 ))
enzyme has been used as a selectable marker when from Shigella sp., yielded efficient selection of
nptII was not found to be effective (Twyman et al., transformed tobacco protoplasts on high levels of
2002). kanamycin (Gossele et al., 1994). The gene, 6 gat,
Hygromycin B is the second most frequently used under the control of the 35S promoter, is therefore a
antibiotic for selection after kanamycin; for instance, functional alternative to the nptII gene.
a sampling of publications in 2002 revealed that it
was used in 19–31% of the papers in which transgenic 2.2.1.3. Aminoglycoside-O-nucleotidyltransferases.
plants were generated for research purposes (Table 1). Aminoglycoside-O-nucleotidyltransferases represent
Consistent with this observation is that HPT is the the third class of enzymes that modify the amino-
second most prevalent antibiotic selectable marker glycoside antibiotics that can be used as plant se-
listed in the US field trials data base (Table 3, ISB, lectable marker genes (reviewed by Nap et al.,
2003). 1992). The bacterial aadA gene codes for the enzyme
aminoglycoside-3 -adenyltransferase. When driven
Streptomycin phosphotransferase. The gene cod- by the 35S promoter, the aadA gene conferred re-
ing for streptomycin phosphotransferase (SPT, APH sistance to spectinomycin and streptomycin in N.
[3 ], E.C. 2.7.1.87) comes from the bacterial trans- tabacum; however, the selection was for the contrast
poson, Tn5 (Mazodier et al., 1985). A mutant form between green tissue and chlorotic tissue rather than
of SPT, containing a two amino acid deletion near for survival and growth (Svab et al., 1990). Simi-
the carboxy-terminus of the protein, was placed under lar results were obtained with white clover (Larkin
the control of the T-DNA transcript 2 promoter and et al., 1996) and with maize (Lowe et al., 1995). This
introduced into N. tabacum. Transformed calli were gene has not been broadly adopted as a nuclear se-
selected in the presence of streptomycin. As strepto- lectable marker gene for the production of transgenic
mycin causes bleaching rather than cell death, trans- plants. However, it is the most widely used selectable
formed tissue was recognized as green tissue. The ef- marker for plastid transformation. When combined
ficiency of transformation using this streptomycin re- with spectinomycin selection, plastid transformation
sistance marker was comparable to the nptII gene un- frequencies in tobacco may approach the levels of
der control of the nos promoter (Maliga et al., 1988). nuclear transformation (Svab and Maliga, 1993).
This marker system has not been adopted for general The aadA gene is found in several transgenic lines
use. approved for commercialization (Table 2) but it is
under the control of a bacterial promoter, not a plant transformation of potato cv Russet Burbank because
promoter. It was used as a selectable marker during of inefficiencies and abnormalities associated with
bacterial cloning and not for the selection of trans- other selection systems (Wallis et al., 1996). In the
genic plants (AGBIOS, 2003) Mediterranean, where parasitic weeds such as broom-
rape (Orobanche spp.) are a constraint to production,
2.2.2. Bleomycin resistance resistance to the sulfonamide asulam may allow the
Phleomycin and Bleomycin are novel antibiotics use of sulfonamides as a herbicide (Surov et al., 1998).
that belong to the bleomycin family of glycopeptides
that act by site-specific, single- and double-stranded 2.2.4. Streptothricin acetyltransferase
DNA cleavage (discussed in Hille et al., 1986; Perez Streptothricins produced by Streptomyces spp. are
et al., 1989). Interestingly, strand cleavage does not antimicrobial agents that consist of gulosamine, strep-
appear to generate mutations when applied to plants. tolidin and a peptide chain of 1–6 residues (reviewed
Bleomycin interferes with tobacco plant regenera- in Jelenska et al., 2000). They inhibit protein syn-
tion through morphogenesis (Perez et al., 1989). Two thesis by binding to the ribosomal small subunit.
sources of resistance have been described for plants: The E. coli sat3 gene codes for an acetyl transferase
the resistance gene found on E. coli transposon Tn5 activity that inactivates streptothricins. When con-
and a chromosomal gene of Streptoalloteichus hin- trolled by the 35S promoter the sat gene acted as
dustanus (Hille et al., 1986; Perez et al., 1989). When a selectable marker gene in a variety of dicot plant
expressed at high levels from the 35S promoter, both species (Jelenska et al., 2000).
genes yield high levels of resistance to phleomycin
2.2.5. Chloramphenicol acetyltransferase
and regeneration of tobacco plants (Perez et al.,
Chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (E.C. 2.3.1.2,
1989). So far, this system does not appear to have
CAT) from E. coli Tn9 has been used for the selection
been widely adopted.
of tobacco transformants with the cat gene driven by
the nos promoter (DeBlock et al., 1984). Selection
2.2.3. Mutant dihydropteroate synthase
on chloramphenicol was much less efficient than se-
A large number of sulfonamides or sulfa drugs exist
lection on kanamycin conferred by the nptII gene.
as antimicrobial compounds that inhibit the enzyme di-
The inefficiency has limited the use of the cat gene
hydropteroate synthase (DHPS, E.C. 2.5.1.15). DHPS
as a selectable marker; however, the sensitive assay
catalyzes a rate limiting step for folic acid synthesis
for enzyme activity enhanced its use as a reporter
in bacteria and plants (discussed in Wallis et al., 1996;
gene for transformation events in early studies. This
Guerineau et al., 1990). Resistance is encoded by sul
enzyme is no longer widely used as a reporter gene.
genes on bacterial R plasmids (discussed in Guerineau
Only four occurrences of the CAT selectable marker
et al., 1990). The resistance gene sulI from plasmid
in plants were found in the database of US field trial
R46 codes for a mutant form of DHPS that is resis-
notifications (ISB, 2003). The most recent of these
tant to inhibition by the sulfonamides. To be effective
notifications was in 1992 indicating that this marker is
in plants, the enzyme must be targeted to the chloro-
no longer widely used. Three of the four notifications
plast. For example, cleavage of the transit peptide
list NPTII as the selectable marker in addition to CAT.
sequence of the pea ribulose bisphosphate carboxy-
The CAT gene controlled by the nos promoter
lase/oxygenase gene fused to the sulI gene, results
has also been introduced in the tobacco chloroplast
in the deposition of the enzyme into the chloroplast
genome by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation
stroma. Effective selection and regeneration of tobacco
under selection with chloramphenicol (DeBlock et al.,
were demonstrated when this construct was expressed
1985).
using the 35S promoter. The selection system differs
from the others described so far in that the mechanism 2.3. Conditional-positive selection systems using
is a mutation of the enzyme resulting in resistance herbicides
rather than detoxification of the antibiotic by the en-
zyme. Interestingly, the chimeric sulI gene described Like antibiotics, herbicides act on a variety of spe-
above is one of the few alternatives to nptII for the cific target sites within plants. The sources of genes
used to achieve selection on herbicides range from et al., 1989) and subsequently found to be an excellent
bacterial to plant in origin (Table 5). Some of the selectable marker for many species including maize
plant genes code for enzymes in essential metabolic (Fromm et al., 1990; Gordon-Kamm et al., 1990),
and biosynthetic pathways. At least two mechanisms wheat (Vasil et al., 1992), rice (Rathore et al., 1993),
are employed to achieve resistance. One mechanism legumes (Larkin et al., 1996) and conifers (Brukhin
uses the resistance found in natural isozymes or genet al., 2000). The bar gene is particularly useful in
erated by enzyme mutagenesis, and the second in- plants, such as orchids, that are naturally tolerant to
volves detoxification of the herbicide by metabolic antibiotics (Knapp et al., 2000).
processes. Selection with antibiotics and herbicides Expression of the bar gene in the tobacco plastid
is similar in that both categories of agents are toxic genome yielded field levels of resistance to PPT; how-
to non-transformed plant cells and transformed plant ever, direct selection for transplastomic plants using
cells are provided with mechanisms that allow them bar was not successful indicating that the compart-
to escape the toxicity. ment, in which PAT is located, is essential for selec-
tion on PPT (Lutz et al., 2001).
2.3.1. Phosphinothricin N-acetyltransferase or In samples of research papers published in
bialophos resistance gene 2002, the bar gene was the most extensively-used
The l-isomer of phosphinothricin (PPT; glufosi- herbicide-resistance selectable marker gene (4–31%).
nate ammonium) is the active ingredient of several The level of use was similar to that of the hpt gene,
commercial broad spectrum herbicide formulations which confers resistance to the antibiotic hygromycin
(e.g. BastaTM , IgniteTM , LibertyTM ). An analogue of B (Table 1). l-PPT tolerance is also being extensively
l-glutamic acid, PPT is a competitive inhibitor of used in plants undergoing transgenic field trials. For
glutamine synthetase (GS) which is the only enzyme example, in the years 2001 and 2002 alone, 327
that can catalyse the assimilation of ammonia into records containing the enzyme PAT were listed in the
glutamic acid in plants. Inhibition of glutamine syn- US field trial database (Table 3; ISB, 2003). From
thetase ultimately results in the accumulation of toxic the records in the database, it is evident that a variety
ammonia levels resulting in plant cell death (OECD, of companies and researchers are using PAT in their
1999). studies.
Two sources of resistance have been described. Ele- l-PPT tolerant plants containing the pat or bar
vation of GS expression levels using strong promoters genes have been deemed safe by various international
will confer resistance to PPT (Eckes et al., 1989) but government regulatory agencies for unconfined release
this approach has not been adopted for commercial and food and livestock feed use (Table 2, AGBIOS,
applications. Secondly, bacterial acetyltransferases 2003). B. napus L. line HCN92, which contains the
that confer resistance to bialophos (consisting of two pat gene, was the first transgenic l-PPT tolerant plant
l-alanine residues and PPT) have been used in plants to receive government approval (CFIA, 1995b). Since
to achieve resistance to herbicides that contain PPT. then other l-PPT tolerant lines including oilseed rape,
Two genes (pat and bar) encoding the enzyme phos- maize, chicory and sugar beet lines have received
phinothricin N-acetyltransferase (PAT) have been used approval for commercialization (Table 2).
to confer tolerance to l-PPT in transgenic plants. The
bar (bialophos resistance) gene from S. hygroscopi- 2.3.2. 5-Enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase
cus (Thompson et al., 1987) and the pat gene from and glyphosate oxidase
S. viridochromogenes (Wohlleben et al., 1988) are Glyphosate (N-[phosphonomethyl]glycine) is a
87% similar at the nucleotide level. PAT uses acetyl broad-spectrum herbicide that is the active in-
CoA as a cofactor to catalyze the acetylation of the gredient of the commercial Roundup® formula-
free amino group of l-PPT. The acetylated form of tions. It acts as an inhibitor of the plastid enzyme
l-PPT is unable to bind to and inactivate glutamine 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSP
synthetase. The bar gene driven by plant promoters synthase, E.C. 2.5.1.19) which is essential in the shiki-
was shown to be an effective selectable marker gene mate pathway for the biosynthesis of the aromatic
in Brassica napus and Brassica oleracea (DeBlock amino acids. A number of mechanisms for glyphosate
resistance have been described. Examples include the confers resistance to glyphosate when expressed in
following: over expression of a petunia EPSP synthase the chloroplast genome; however, the transplastomic
gene using the 35S promoter generated glyphosate plants were selected using antibiotic resistance (Ye
tolerance in transformed petunia (Shah et al., 1986); et al., 2001). Generally, selection on glyphosate has
expression of mutant forms of the EPSP synthase gene not been adopted broadly for basic research involving
aroA from Salmonella typhimurium (Comai et al., transgenic plants (Table 1).
1988) or E. coli (della-Cioppa et al., 1987) targeted The use of EPSP synthase (and GOX) in transgenic
to chloroplasts, conferred glyphosate resistance to plants has undergone extensive safety evaluations
tobacco; a naturally-glyphosate-resistant EPSP syn- (Padgette et al., 1996; Monsanto, 2003). Transgenic
thase gene from the A. tumefaciens strain CP4 (Barry plants, which contain glyphosate resistance as ei-
et al., 1992) fused to the transit peptide sequence of ther an agronomic trait or a selectable marker, have
Arabidopsis EPSP synthase for chloroplast targeting received approval for commercialization (Table 2).
has conferred glyphosate resistance to several crop These include Roundup Ready® canola, corn, soy-
species (Table 2; AGBIOS, 2003); catabolism of bean and cotton. The goxv247 gene no longer appears
glyphosate to glyoxylate and aminomethylphosphonic to be used in crop development. Of the commercially
acid (AMPA) by bacterial glyphosate oxidoreduc- grown Roundup Ready® crops, only Roundup Ready®
tase (GOX) targeted to the chloroplast has conferred canola contains both the cp4 epsps and goxv 247
glyphosate resistance to several different plants (Barry genes. A search of the information available on the US
et al., 1992; Howe et al., 2002). field trials database did not reveal any public records
The GOX gene from Ochrobactrum anthropi strain after 1998 containing GOX (ISB, 2003). However,
LBAA has been modified to improve expression in the epsps gene is still widely used, mostly to confer
plants and fused to the transit peptide sequence of Ara- glyphosate resistance. In 2001 and 2002, 507 records
bidopsis ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase small sub- containing EPSPS were found in the US field trials
unit gene, SSU1A-CTP1 for transport to the chloro- database, which includes the use of the EPSP synthase
plast (Barry et al., 1992; Barry and Kishore, 1995; to confer herbicide tolerance and/or as a selectable
Monsanto, 2003). It has been used as a selectable marker (Table 3). The overwhelming majority of these
marker in tobacco, Arabidopsis, potato and sugarbeet notifications were from Monsanto (ISB, 2003).
(Barry and Kishore, 1995). GOX was ineffective as
a selectable marker in maize although the regener- 2.3.3. Acetolactate synthase or acetohydroxyacid
ated plant had resistance to glyphosate (Howe et al., synthase
2002). GOX has been used as a selectable marker in Acetolactate synthase, also known as acetohydrox-
conjunction with EPSPS that has been fused to the yacid synthase (ALS, AHAS: E.C. 4.1.8.13), is the tar-
transit peptide sequence of Arabidopsis EPSP syn- get for several classes of herbicides including the sul-
thase for chloroplast targeting. In Roundup-Ready® fonylureas, imidazolinones, triazolopyrimidines and
canola, a variant of the GOX gene from Ochrobac- pyrimidinyl thiobenzoates (Singh and Shaner, 1995).
trum anthropi strain LBAA (goxv247) and the cp4 ALS is a regulatory enzyme in the biosynthetic path-
epsps gene are linked on a single T-DNA to achieve way to branched-chain amino acids in chloroplasts and
glyphosate resistance (Monsanto 2003). Direct selec- it is encoded by a limited number of nuclear genes de-
tion for glyphosate resistance using the gox and cp4 pending on the plant species. ALS genes are amenable
epsps genes have been demonstrated, for instance, in to mutation and yield mutant enzymes that are resistant
wheat (Zhou et al., 1995). The cp4 epsps gene alone to one or more of the herbicides that act on ALS. Many
has been shown to be effective in soybean (Clemente of the specific sites have been mapped for ALS genes
et al., 2000) and functional in maize (Armstong et al., (Guttieri et al., 1996). Several plant mutants have been
1995; Russell and Fromm, 1997). The maize EPSP isolated directly through mutagenesis and selection
synthase gene, altered by site-directed mutagenesis strategies; for example, imidazolinone-resistant B. na-
to increase tolerance to glyphosate, was shown to pus, which is in production in Canada (Swanson et al.,
be very effective as a selectable marker gene for 1989; CFIA, 1995a). In general, herbicide resistant
maize (Howe et al., 2002). The cp4 epsps gene also forms of ALS differ by only one or two amino acids
from the native form. Selection for sulfonylurea and marker genes (Freyssinet et al., 1996). The gene is
imidazolinone resistance is very efficient and was used therefore another example of a herbicide-resistance
to demonstrate targeted modifications of endogenous selectable marker gene.
ALS from wild-type to herbicide resistance form us- A complete safety assessment of the use of the bxn
ing chimeric RNA/DNA oligonucleotides. This was gene in transgenic plants has led to the regulatory
achieved with tobacco (Beetham et al., 1999) and approval for the commercialization of at least three
maize (Zhu et al., 2000), generating plants with tar- transgenic lines containing the bxn gene. In canola
geted mutations that were not transgenic (i.e. foreign line Oxy-235, bromoxynil was used as the only se-
DNA sequences were not integrated into the plant lective agent during transformation. This line was
genome). approved for environmental release and for food and
It is therefore not surprising that mutant forms of livestock feed in Canada in 1997 (AGBIOS, 2003;
plant ALS would act as effective selectable marker CFIA, 1998; Health Canada, 1999). It is the parental
genes when combined with sulfonylurea or imida- line for commercial NavigatorTM canola varieties
zolinone herbicides. Selection of transgenic tobacco (AGBIOS, 2003). Two cotton lines contain the bnx
plants on sulfonylureas in culture was shown with a gene but the nptII gene was used as the selectable
mutant Arabidopsis gene, csr 1-1 (Olszewski et al., marker (Table 2). No public records for the nitrilase
1988; Charest et al., 1990) and direct selection under enzyme as a selectable marker were listed in the US
greenhouse conditions was demonstrated for B. napus field trials database in 2001 or 2002 suggesting that it
canola (Miki et al., 1990). A mutant form of the maize is not widely used (ISB, 2003).
ALS gene was found to be very efficient in the selec-
tion of transgenic maize in culture from embryogenic 2.3.5. Glutamate-1-semialdehyde aminotransferase
cells (Fromm et al., 1990). A mutant Arabidopsis ALS Gabaculine (3-amino-2,3-dihydrobenzoic acid) is
gene that confers resistance to imidazolinones was a bacterial phototoxin that inhibits a wide range of
used to recover transgenic soybean from cultured api- pyridoxal-5-phosphate-linked aminotransferases. A
cal meristems, which accumulate the imidazolinone, mutant form of glutamate-1-semialdehyde amino-
Imazapyr (Aragao et al., 2000). transferase (GSA-AT, E.C. 5.4.3.8) encoded by the
Several lines of genetically modified carnation ap- hemL gene, was discovered in a gabaculine-resistant
proved for commercialization were developed using cyanobacterium, Synechococcus PCC6301 strain
the ALS encoding mutant gene surB from tobacco GR6. The hemL gene, expressed at very high levels in
as a selectable marker (AGBIOS, 2003). Five public tobacco using the double 35S promoter and targeted
records containing ALS or AHAS were listed in the to chloroplasts with the transit peptide of the ribu-
US field trials database for the years 2001 and 2002 lose bisphosphate carboxylase small subunit, yielded
suggesting that this gene is not being widely adopted green transformed tissue that could be distinguished
as a selectable marker system (Table 3; ISB, 2003). from chlorotic untransformed tissue (Gough et al.,
2001). Seedlings also segregated as green and white
2.3.4. Bromoxynil nitrilase phenotypes (Gough et al., 2001). It was suggested
The oxynil herbicides, such as bromoxynil that the system may be used to develop a chloroplast
(3,5-dibromo-4-hydroxybenzonitrile) and ioxynil selection system but no experiments were presented.
(3,5-diiodo-4-hydroxybenzonitrile), are inhibitors of
photosystem II electron transport that are active in 2.3.6. Cyanamide hydratase
many plants but not in monocots. A nitrilase enzyme Cyanamide is a nitrile derivative that in its aque-
(3,5-dibromo-4-hydroxybenzonitrile aminohydrolase: ous or calcium salt forms can be used as a fertilizer.
E.C. 3.5.5.6), coded by the bnx gene from Klebsiella It has the additional characteristic of acting as a
pneumoniae subspecies ozanaenae, hydrolyzes bro- non-persistent herbicide when applied prior to seed
moxynil into 3,5-dibromo-4-dihydroxybenzoic acid germination. The gene cah coding for the enzyme
and ammonia. The bnx gene has been shown to con- cyanamide hydratase (urea hydrolase; E.C. 4.2.1.69)
fer resistance to bromoxynil in tobacco (Stalker et al., has been isolated from the soil fungus Myrothecium
1988) and B. napus without using other selectable verrucaria (Maier-Greiner et al., 1991a). Cyanamide
hydratase catalyzes the hydration of the nitrile group specific for betaine aldehyde and converts it to glycine
of cyanamide to form urea, which can be used for betaine, which accumulates in a few crop species as
plant growth. The enzyme has an extremely narrow an osmoprotectant. The enzyme is nuclear encoded
substrate specificity. The use of cyanamide hydratase but is transported to the chloroplast, which is the site
as a selectable marker has been demonstrated in wheat of action. Expression in tomato allowed the direct
(Weeks et al., 2000), tobacco (Maier-Greiner et al., selection and regeneration of plants in the presence
1991b), potato, tomato, rice and Arabidopsis (Damm, of betaine aldehyde at efficiencies lower than that of
1998). A search of the US field trials database shows the nptII gene (Ursin, 1996).
that cyanamide hydratase has also been used in The enzyme is well suited as a chloroplast selectable
sorghum and soybean (Table 3; ISB, 2003). marker gene. It is 25-fold more efficient than specti-
nomycin resistance conferred by the aadA gene and
2.4. Conditional-positive selection systems using acts much faster (Daniell et al., 2001). Homoplasty
toxic metabolic intermediates, analogues and drugs was achieved in the transplastomic tobacco plants and
they were morphologically normal. BADH appears to
Enzymes acting in a wide range of metabolic path- be a good alternative to the use of antibiotic resis-
ways in plants can be targets for inhibitors or drugs tance marker genes for the production of transplas-
(Table 6). Furthermore, sources of resistance may be tomic plants.
found in diverse organisms as discussed for the her-
bicides. The manipulation of metabolic and biosyn- 2.4.3. Dihydrodipicolinate synthase and aspartate
thetic pathways can potentially alter the composition kinase
and form of the transgenic plants. This has been re- The aspartate family pathway, which leads to the
ported in some but not all cases. The research and biosynthesis of lysine, threonine, methionine and
assessment of these selectable marker genes has not isoleucine, is regulated by a number of feedback
progressed to the level of the major antibiotic and loops. Key enzymes, such as aspartate kinase, are
herbicide-resistance marker genes. feedback-inhibited by lysine and threonine (LT). Di-
hydrodipicolinate synthase is inhibited by lysine or its
2.4.1. 2-Deoxyglucose-6-phosphate phosphatases toxic analogue S-aminoethyl l-cysteine (AEC), which
The glucose analogue, 2-deoxyglucose (2-DOG), competes with lysine in protein synthesis. Growth in
is phosphorylated by hexokinase to form 2-DOG-6- the presence of lysine and threonine causes methio-
phosphate. 2-DOG-6-phosphate competes with nine starvation due to inhibition of the pathway and
glucose-6-phosphate causing cell death through the results in strong inhibition of growth. The enzymes
inhibition of glycolysis. The yeast gene DOGR 1, cod- from E. coli are less sensitive to feedback inhibition.
ing for 2-deoxyglucose-6-phosphate phosphatase, was When controlled by the 35S promoter, E. coli enzyme
placed under the control of the 35S promoter. Use constructs yielded transgenic potato plants with very
of this construct as a selectable marker gene resulted few escapes on selection with LT for aspartate ki-
in the selection of transgenic tobacco plants at lower nase and AEC for dihydrodipicolinate synthase (Perl
efficiencies than with the nptII gene and the selec- et al., 1993). One of the potential drawbacks is that the
tion of transgenic potato with comparable efficiencies overproduction of lysine or threonine resulting from
(Kunze et al., 2001). The selection system was also the modification of metabolism causes abnormalities
demonstrated in pea (Sonnewald and Ebneth, 1998). in some plants (Perl et al., 1993).
Abnormalities were not observed in the plants pre-
sumably due to the narrow substrate specificity of the 2.4.4. Octopine synthase
enzyme (Kunze et al., 2001). Potential pathways for the detoxification of the ly-
sine analogue, AEC, may involve the enzyme, oc-
2.4.2. Aldehyde dehydrogenase topine synthase or lysopine dehydrogenase. The gene
Small aldehydes, such as betaine aldehyde, are for this enzyme is part of the T-DNA component of
phytotoxic to many plant cells. The spinach enzyme, the Agrobacterium tumefaciens octopine Ti plasmids.
betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase (BADH), is highly The enzyme converts pyruvate and lysine into lysopine
and appears to metabolize AEC to carboxyethyl-AEC. opments and limited in number as shown in Table 7.
Callus tissues that express the enzyme appear to be This category differs significantly from the previously
20-fold more tolerant to AEC (Dahl and Tempe, 1983). discussed systems in that the external substrates are
Selective growth of callus on AEC was shown in basically inert until they are converted into molecules
preliminary experiments with petunia stem explants that provide the transformed plant cells with a growth
(Koziel et al., 1984). advantage. This approach appears to yield generally
higher transformation frequencies and seems to be
2.4.5. Tryptophan decarboxylase broadly applicable across a range of plant species
In Catharanthus roseus, tryptophan decarboxy- making it is an area of major interest for crop plants.
lase (TDC; E.C. 4.1.1.28) is an enzyme in the The systems described so far use bacterial genes
terpenoid indole alkaloid pathway that converts as selectable markers that act on fundamental plant
l-tryptophan into tryptamine. Another substrate of metabolic pathways. Currently, the information is not
TDC, 4-methyltryptophan (4-mT), is toxic to plants as extensive as that available for the major antibiotic
that do not have TDC activity but will be converted and herbicide resistance genes.
to typtamine in those plants that do have it. When
the C. roseus gene coding for TDC was placed under 2.5.1. Xylose isomerase
the control of the 35S promoter and introduced into Plant cells from species such as tobacco, potato
tobacco, direct selection on 4-mT yielded transgenic and tomato cannot use d-xylose as a sole carbon
plants with the same efficiency as the nptII gene source. The enzyme xylose isomerase (d-xylose
(Goddijn et al., 1993). Although the specificity of ketol-isomerase; E.C. 5.3.1.5) catalyzes the isomer-
the reaction was considered an advantage, a possible ization of xylose to d-xylulose, which can then be
drawback could be the accumulation of tryptamine in used as a carbon source. The xylA genes, coding
the transformed plants (Goddijn et al., 1993). for xylose isomerase from Streptomyces rubiginosus
(Haldrup et al., 1998a) and Thermoanaerobacterium
2.4.6. Dihydrofolate reductase
thermosulfurogenes (Haldrup et al., 1998b), have
Antifolate drugs, such as trimethoprim and
been fused to the enhanced 35S promoter and the
methotrexate (Mtx), bind to the active site of the en-
translational enhancer from tobacco mosaic virus for
zyme dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR, E.C. 1.5.1.3)
testing in transgenic tobacco, potato and tomato as
resulting in impaired protein, RNA and DNA biosyn-
selectable markers. The efficiency of selection was
thesis and subsequently cell death. Plant cells are gen-
much greater than for the nptII gene and the regener-
erally very sensitive to low levels of Mtx. Sources of
ation of shoots was significantly faster. Furthermore,
resistant DHFR have been found in the bacterium E.
for at least some Solanaceous species, the overall
coli (Brisson and Hohn, 1984; Herrera-Estrella et al.,
efficiency of transformation was enhanced with both
1983), the fungus Candida albicans (Irdani et al.,
xylA genes. It was suggested that the enzyme from S.
1998) and mutant mammalian cells (Eichholtz et al.,
rubiginosus posed no biosafety issues as it is used in
1987). Testing in transgenic tobacco and petunia con-
the food industry and considered safe (Haldrup et al.,
firmed that these genes could be used for selection
1998a).
of transgenic plants on Mtx. A novel and unexpected
observation was the finding that the C. albicans gene
2.5.2. Phosphomannose isomerase
provided resistance in plants when used with the en-
Mannose like xylose is not toxic to plant cells.
dogenous fungal regulatory sequences (Irdani et al.,
However, mannose will prevent cell growth and de-
1998), suggesting that the level of expression required
velopment when mannose is converted by hexoki-
for resistance with this gene may be very low.
nase to mannose-6-phosphate, which on accumula-
2.5. Conditional-positive selection systems using tion inhibits glycolysis. Phosphomannose isomerase
non-toxic metabolic intermediates (PMI; E.C. 5.3.1.8) catalyzes the interconversion
of mannose-6-phosphate and fructose-6-phosphate,
Conditional-positive selection systems with which allows mannose to become a carbon source.
non-toxic metabolic intermediates are recent devel- Although the enzyme is widely distributed in na-
ture, it is absent in many plants although leguminous drolysis by GUS releases benzyladenine which will
plants such as soybean have PMI activity (Privalle stimulate shoot regeneration. This process has been
et al., 2000). Using mannose as the selective agent, shown to be an effective conditional-positive selec-
the E. coli manA (pmi) gene under the control of the tion strategy in tobacco (Joersbo and Okkels, 1996).
35S promoter was found to be an effective selectable The frequency of transformation scored by shoot re-
marker. Using this selection system, 10-fold greater generation was much greater than that achieved by
transformation frequencies were obtained in sugar the nptII gene in control experiments (Joersbo and
beet (Beta vulgaris L.) compared with the frequencies Okkels, 1996). An added advantage is that the activity
obtained using the nptII gene and kanamycin as the of GUS can be used as visual marker without the use
selective agent (Joersbo et al., 1998). These dramatic of an additional gene or gene fusion.
results were followed by similar findings in maize,
wheat, barley, watermelon (reviewed in Reed et al., 2.6. Non-conditional-positive selection systems
2001) and in rice (Lucca et al., 2001). In all cases
significantly higher transformation frequencies were Positive non-conditional selection systems include
observed and very few escapes were found. It is be- new strategies that promote plant regeneration without
lieved that the arrest in cell growth of untransformed the use of selective agents. They provide novel oppor-
cells by starvation rather than the necrosis induced by tunities to develop new selectable marker genes. An
toxic selective agents may contribute to the survival obstacle to the development of this technology is the
and growth of the transformed cells and the high lack of knowledge of the genetic and biochemical con-
transformation frequencies reported. In some species, trols of plant regeneration through organogenesis and
such as cassava, the frequency of transformation was embryogenesis. Presently, information on the mech-
lower than that achieved with the hpt gene (Zhang anisms governing shoot organogenesis and cytokinin
and Puonti-Kaerlas, 2000). signal transduction is greater than for embryogenesis.
The system is being marketed as the PositechTM A number of genes that confer cytokinin-independent
selection technique by Syngenta. Safety assessments shoot formation have been discovered (reviewed by
have been performed including allergenicity and tox- Zuo et al., 2002a). Some of these may also act as se-
icity studies (Privalle et al., 2000; Reed et al., 2001; lectable markers as described in Table 8. They include
Privalle, 2002). The enzyme was found to be com- genes encoded by the T-DNA region of Agrobac-
pletely digested in simulated mammalian gastric and terium Ti and Ri plasmids as well as Arabidopsis
intestinal fluids. PMI protein had no adverse effects genes coding for the putative cytokinin receptor, CKI1
on mice following acute oral toxicity studies. Further- (Takimoto, 1996; Zuo et al., 2002a), and the transcrip-
more, there appeared to be no changes in the glycopro- tion factor, ESR1 (Banno and Chua, 2002).
tein profiles of transgenic maize or sugar beets. Field The need for genes that control embryogenesis
trials conducted on seven independent transformation has been argued by Zuo et al. (2002a) as most crops
events demonstrated that there were no differences in regenerate through embryogenesis rather than organo-
the agronomic performance or grain composition of genesis. Genes that act very early in embryogenesis
transgenic maize compared to non-transgenic controls have been discovered using a variety of experimen-
(Privalle et al., 2000; Reed et al., 2001). tal approaches but experiments to demonstrate their
utility as selectable marker genes have not yet been
2.5.3. β-Glucuronidase published. Except for the SOMATIC EMBRYOGE-
The enzyme ␤-glucuronidase (GUS, E.C. 3.2.1.31), NESIS RECEPTOR KINASE 1 (SERK1) gene, these
encoded by the E. coli uidA (gusA) gene, will genes code for transcription factors that are impor-
be discussed later as a non-selectable marker or tant in the control of development. In Arabidopsis
reporter gene. GUS catalyses the hydrolysis of the AtSERK1 gene is expressed in the embryo sac
␤-d-glucuronides. The glucuronide substrate has been prior to fertilization and throughout early embryo
conjugated with the cytokinin, benzyladenine, to cre- development. Ectopic expression of AtSERK1 from
ate benyladenine N-3-glucuronide which does not the 35S promoter increased the efficiency of somatic
affect plant growth and differentiation. However, hy- embryogenesis from callus by 3–4-fold (Hecht et al.,
2001). The Arabidopsis transcription factor LEAFY the first step in cytokinin biosynthesis. When the
COTYLEDON 1 (LEC1) is a CCAAT box-binding ipt gene regulated by the 35S promoter is trans-
factor HAP3 subunit homolog that appears to play sev- ferred to tobacco, the transformation efficiency mea-
eral roles in embryo development. When expressed ec- sured by the regeneration of transformed shoots is
topically, it will generate embryos from the vegetative 2.7-fold greater than that achieved by a 35S-nptII
leaf cells of germinated seedlings (Lotan et al., 1998). gene construct. Moreover, the effectiveness of the
It therefore plays a central role in the induction of em- nptII gene as a selectable marker was enhanced
bryogenesis; however, plants with normal morphology when it was co-transformed with the 35S-ipt gene
were not recovered even with an inducible promoter construct (Endo et al., 2001). The observation par-
system (Zuo et al., 2002a). LEC2, another B3 domain alleled previously-discussed observations made with
transcription factor, also induces somatic embryo de- conditional-positive selection systems that avoid
velopment in transgenic Arabidopsis (Stone et al., toxic selective agents. It appears that the Arabidop-
2001). The B. napus transcription factor BABYBOOM sis genome codes for a family of IPT genes that
(BBM) is a member of the AP2-domain transcription catalyze similar reactions and generate the same phe-
factors that also plays a central role in embryogene- notype when expressed in transgenic plants (Takei
sis. It was isolated from microspores undergoing the et al., 2001; Sun et al., 2003). They may be effective
transition from the pollen to embryo developmental substitutes for the A. tumefaciens ipt gene.
pathways. When expressed at high levels from the 35S The difficulty with this system is that all of the
promoter (Boutilier et al., 2002), BBM converted the regenerated shoots have abnormal morphologies re-
vegetative cells of Arabidopsis and B. napus seedlings sulting from the high endogenous cytokinin levels
into somatic embryo-producing cells. Regenerated which include the loss of apical dominance and lack
plants expressing very high levels of BBM possessed of roots (i.e. the shooty phenotype). The use of a
abnormal morphologies. The Arabidopsis home- ␤-estradiol-inducible, artificial promoter system to
odomain transcription factor, WUSCHEL (WUS) was restrict expression of the ipt gene during the selec-
a potent inducer of the vegetative-to-embryonic cell tion phase appeared to eliminate these morphologi-
transition and is believed to be involved in embryonal cal abnormalities in regenerated tobacco shoots and
stem cell formation (Zuo et al., 2002b). An interesting plantlets (Kunkel et al., 1999). A high frequency of
finding was that WUS appears to play an impor- escapes have been described. They are assumed to
tant role in both embryogenesis and the shoot apical result from cytokinins produced in the transformed
meristem through separate developmental pathways cells that migrate to non-transformed cells and induce
(Zuo et al., 2002b). Further research on the genes that shoot formation (Zuo et al., 2002a); however, this
control plant embryogenesis may soon result in the assumption is uncertain (Kunkel et al., 1999).
development of new selectable marker strategies.
2.6.2. Histidine kinase homologue
2.6.1. Isopentyl transferases Activation tagging of cytokinin-independent genes
Organogenesis in vitro occurs in three phases: the identified a potential cytokinin receptor, CKI1
acquisition of competence, determination of organ (Kakimoto, 1996). When CKI1 was expressed in trans-
formation governed by phytohormone balance and genic calli using the 35S promoter, typical cytokinin
morphogenesis (Sugiyama, 1999). For shoot for- responses, such as shoot production and lack of roots,
mation in culture, high cytokinin:auxin ratios are were observed without added cytokinin. Subsequent
required. Genes that promote this condition endoge- experiments using the ␤-estradiol-inducible promoter
nously will enhance regeneration of shoots thus system to express the CKI1 gene in Arabidopsis,
providing a novel non-conditional-positive selection yielded calli that produced shoots in the absence of
strategy. The enzyme isopentyl transferase (IPT), exogenous cytokinin and in the presence of the in-
which is encoded by the T-DNA of A. tumefaciens ducer ␤-estradiol to activate the promoter (Zuo et al.,
Ti plasmids, contributes to crown gall formation in 2002a). On removal from non-inductive media the
infected plants. The enzyme catalyzes the synthesis shoots developed into normal plants. Interestingly,
of isopentyl-adenosine-5 -monophosphate which is no escapes were generated. This contrasts with
observations made with the ipt gene where cytokinin genic events where escapes may be common. More-
leakage could generate escapes from neighbouring over, they have been used to improve transformation
cells. It was suggested that over-expressed CKI1 pro- systems and the efficiency of recovering transgenic
tein would not leak to neighbouring cells and the plants by allowing the visual detection of transformed
protein as a cytokinin receptor, somehow activated tissues. This may permit the manual selection of trans-
the downstream signal transduction pathway without formed tissues prior to the application of selective
cytokinin accumulation (Zuo et al., 2002a). agents to enrich the tissues in transformed cells.
Green fluorescent protein (GFP) has been particu-
2.6.3. Hairy root-inducing genes larly important in the development of these strategies
A. rhizogenes-mediated transformation gener- as the assay is non-destructive and simple to apply
ates plants with altered morphology (i.e. the hairy (reviewed by Stewart, 2001). Furthermore, GFP has
root phenotype) and the responsible rol genes have become a valuable tool for monitoring gene expres-
been used in certain plant transformation vectors sion in field trials and for following pollen flow. Other
as a selectable marker (reviewed by Ebinuma and genes that generate coloured tissues may also be use-
Komamine, 2001). Generally, the selection system ful markers (Trulson and Braun, 1997) and novel ap-
has not been extensively used except to monitor the plications can extend their importance. They may be
transposition or excision or the marker genes in the used for example, as visible markers for monitoring
development of marker-free technologies. This has and identifying transgenic escapes or for generating
been largely superceded by the use of the ipt gene sentinel plants for monitoring environmental contam-
(Ebinuma and Komamine, 2001). inants. Reporter genes that can be detected through
other senses, such as taste (e.g. ThaumatinII; Witty,
1989) or smell, may also be considered. Although de-
3. Non-selectable maker gene systems—reporter structive assays are needed to measure the activity
genes of reporter genes such as GUS, they have been very
important early tools for measuring the activity of
3.1. Background gene regulatory elements in plants and for histochem-
ical localization of marker gene expression (Jefferson,
Non-selectable marker genes or reporter genes 1987). As a reporter, luciferase (LUC) can be moni-
(Table 10) have been very important as partners to tored in living tissue but this requires specialized de-
selectable marker gene systems. They have been used tection equipment (Ow et al., 1986). The use of fusion
in co-transformation experiments to confirm trans- proteins where the coding region of a reporter gene is
Table 10
Non-selectable marker genes or reporter genes demonstrated in transgenic plants
External substrates Genes Enzymes Sources Genomes References
ONPG, X-gal lacZ ␤-Galactosidase Escherichia coli Nuclear Helmer et al., 1984
MUG, X-gluc uidA (gusA) ␤-Glucuronidase Escherichia coli, Nuclear, Jefferson et al., 1987;
Bacillus sp. Plastid Kilian et al., 1999;
Daniell et al., 1991
Luciferin Luc Luciferase Photinus pyralis Nuclear Ow et al., 1986
Decanal luxA, B luxF Vibrio harveyi Koncz et al., 1987
None gfp Green fluroescent, Aequorea victoria Nuclear, Ahlandsberg et al., 1999;
protein (GFP) plastid Khan and Maliga, 1999
None Phytoene synthase Erwinia herbicola Nuclear Trulson and Braun, 1997
None R,C1, B Anthocyanin pathway Maize Nuclear Ludwig et al., 1990;
regulatory factors Bower et al., 1996
None Thaumatin II Thaumatococcus Nuclear Witty, 1989
danielli Benth
Oxalic acid Oxalate oxidase (OxO) Wheat Nuclear Simmonds et al., 2003
fused in-frame with a second gene of interest has been (Kilian et al., 1999). Histochemical localization of
particularly useful in these experiments. gene expression is detectable at the subcellular level,
In species where the transformation frequencies are for instance, in plastids (Daniell et al., 1991). The
very high or where novel cell systems are being in- major drawback with the use of GUS as a reporter is
vestigated, transgenic plants may be generated and re- that the assays are destructive to the plant cells.
covered without the use of selection systems (Aziz A useful feature of GUS is that it can be fused with
and Machray, 2003). Generally, this situation is rare. other proteins (Jefferson et al., 1987). For example,
Non-selectable marker genes or reporter genes may GUS fusions with selectable marker genes such as
aid in the identification of the transformed cells. nptII allow the visualization of transformation in addi-
tion to selection. The capacity to generate fusions with
3.2. β-Galactosidase other proteins has extended the usefulness of GUS
for gene tagging experiments and has resulted in the
The bacterial enzyme ␤-galactosidase (E.C. discovery of novel genomic elements such as cryptic
3.2.1.23), which is coded by the E. coli lacZ gene, gene regulatory elements (Fobert et al., 1994; Foster
has been a useful marker gene in many cell sys- et al., 1999).
tems because it can be easily assayed and can GUS is rapidly degraded under conditions found
form N-terminal translational fusions with other in the stomach (Fuchs and Astwood, 1996). Humans
proteins. Although some plants have background and animals are continuously exposed to GUS from
galactosidase activity, experiments with tobacco bacteria residing in their intestinal tracts and from
and sunflower showed that ectopic enzyme activ- non-transgenic food sources without harmful effects;
ity could be measured with the synthetic substrate therefore, the low level of GUS protein from geneti-
O-nitro-phenyl-␤-d-galacto pyranoside (ONPG) and cally modified plants is not a concern with regard to
tissues that express the enzyme will stain with toxicity or allergenicity (Gilissen et al., 1998).
5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indoyl-␤-d-galactosylpyranoside GUS genes have frequently been co-transformed
(X-Gal). The lac Z gene is therefore a conditional with selectable marker genes, for example, the bar
non-selectable marker gene. The protein does not ap- selectable marker gene, to facilitate the selection of
pear to be toxic to plant cells. Since the initial report transformed tissues (Vasil et al., 1992). GUS expres-
on the use of the marker gene in plants (Helmer et al., sion was used as a reporter to help detect transfor-
1984) it has not been widely adopted. mation events in tissue culture during the production
of a number of plant lines approved for commercial-
3.3. β-Glucuronidase ization. These lines include Bollgard II® cotton, the
glyphosate resistant sugar beet line GTSB77 (variety
The bacterial enzyme ␤-glucuronidase, which is InVigorTM ), papaya line 55-1, three soybean lines with
coded by the E. coli uidA (gusA) gene is the most modified fatty acid content (G94-1, G94-19, G168)
widely used reporter in plants. The enzyme utilizes and two PPT tolerant soybean lines (W62 and W68)
the external substrates 4-methyl umbelliferyl glu- (Table 2). With 91 records, GUS is the most frequently
curonide (MUG) for measurements of specific activity listed reporter gene in the US field trials database in
and 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl glucuronide (X-gluc) 2001 and 2002 (Table 3; ISB, 2003).
for histological localization (Jefferson, 1987). It is
therefore a conditional non-selectable marker gene. 3.4. Luciferase
GUS activity is found widely in microorganisms,
vertebrates and invertebrates (Gilissen et al., 1998) Luciferase (LUC, E.C. 1.13.12.7), as a reporter,
but there is very little background activity in plants. offers several advantages including the capability of
The GUS enzyme is very stable within plants and is monitoring gene expression patterns non-destructively
non-toxic when expressed at high levels. A secreted, in real time with great sensitivity (Ow et al., 1986;
codon optimized form of the Bacillus GUS enzyme, Millar et al., 1992). For example, this allows the
BoGUS, has been developed which is very stable un- continuous monitoring of gene activity during devel-
der denaturing conditions and with very high activity opment (Verhees et al., 2002). The firefly (Photinus
pyralis) luciferase catalyzes the ATP-dependent ox- transgenic plants (Vain et al., 1998). The strategy has
idative decarboxylation of luciferin. After the reaction been widely used for the nuclear transformation of di-
occurs the luciferase is inactive until the oxyluciferin is cots, gymnosperms and cereals (reviewed by Stewart,
released from the enzyme complex. This is a slow pro- 2001). It has been adopted as a co-transforming gene
cess and the LUC half life is very short; thus, it is be- (Sidorov et al., 1999) and as a gene fusion (Khan and
lieved that LUC activity more accurately reflects tran- Maliga, 1999) to enrich for chloroplast transformation
scriptional activity than some other reporter genes that which tends to be inefficient in most species.
are more stable and accumulate over time (Millar et al., GFP has not been extensively used as a reporter
1992; van Leeuwen et al., 2000). Bacterial sources of for studies in the regulation of gene expression or the
luciferase (LUX, E.C. 1.14.14.3) isolated from Vibrio study of regulatory elements; however, it has been a
harveyi have also been tested successfully in plants very useful tag for monitoring intracellular location
(Koncz et al., 1987). Luciferase is often used with and transport when fused to other proteins of interest.
other marker genes as an internal control and is also Fusions with genes of agronomic importance, such
used as a visual marker of transformation for the man- as the cry1Ac gene, have been introduced into canola
ual selection of transgenic material undergoing selec- (Halfhill et al., 2001). These studies showed that GFP
tion (Chia et al., 1994; Lonsdale et al., 1998). Both luc did not impose a fitness cost to field-grown canola and
and lux are conditional non-selectable marker genes. provided a method to monitor pollen flow to non-target
Four public records containing luciferase were plants (Harper et al., 1999). The increased use of GFP
listed in the US field trials database for the years 2001 as a reporter gene is evident from the US field trials
and 2002. database. Of the 41 reports listed in the database up
to the end of 2002, twenty were in 2001 and 2002
3.5. Green fluorescent protein (Table 3) and all have been since 1998.
The green fluorescent protein (GFP) from jelly- 3.6. Phytoene synthase
fish (Aequorea victoria) has become a powerful re-
porter gene to complement selectable marker genes The bacterial gene coding for phytoene synthase
and can be used to select for transformed material from Erwinia herbicola can act as a non-conditional
alone (Ahlandsberg et al., 1999; Jordan, 2000). A num- reporter gene by altering the carotenoid biosynthetic
ber of sequence variants have been generated by mu- pathway in chloroplasts so that coloured carotenoids
tation or codon optimization to enhance activity, sta- accumulate. The coloured tissues expressing the re-
bility and detection (reviewed by Stewart, 2001). The porter gene can then be manually removed and cul-
great advantage of GFP as a non-conditional reporter tured to generate transgenic plants. Phytoene synthase
is the direct visualization of GFP in living tissue in real catalyses the synthesis of phytoene from geranylger-
time without invasive procedures such as the applica- anyl pyrophosphate and phytoene is a precursor of ly-
tion or penetration of cells with substrate and products copene, the carotenoid that imparts the red colour to
that may diffuse within or among cells. Both consid- tomato. E. herbicola phytoene synthase targeted to the
erations provide a significant improvement over GUS chloroplast, generated transgenic orange callus as a
and LUC as reporter genes. As GFP does not appear to visual marker for transgenic tissue at about 50% effi-
have any cytotoxic effects on plant cells, it is possible ciency and may be used to monitor transgenic plants
to identify cells in which GFP is expressed shortly af- (Trulson and Braun, 1997).
ter transformation and to assess whether the cells are
dividing (Harper et al., 1999). This is particularly im- 3.7. Maize R, C1 and B transcription factors
portant for species, such as the cereals, that have been
difficult to transform. GFP allows the manual removal The maize R, C1, P1 and B transcription factor
of the transformed tissues to enrich them prior to the genes regulate the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathways
application of selection pressure with herbicides or an- in specific plant tissues. Ectopic expression of R or
tibiotics. This increases the efficiency of transforma- B initiated the non-selective accumulation of antho-
tion (Jordan, 2000) and reduces the time for producing cyanins in plant cells raising the potential use of
the transcription factors as non-conditional reporter marker-free transgenic plants, all are more difficult
genes that do not require the application of external to implement or are less efficient than procedures
substrates or destructive assays (Ludwig et al., 1990; which leave the marker genes in the plant. Presently,
Radicella et al., 1992). Although the R, C1 and B sufficient data has been accumulated to indicate
transcription factor genes showed promise as visible that co-transformation of non-selected genes with
markers for optimizing transformation methods, ex- selectable marker genes followed by rounds of seg-
pression of the genes was toxic to transformed cells regation will create marker-free plants. However, this
(Bower et al., 1996) and expression was subject to process is labor intensive requiring the production of
environmental stimuli (Chawla et al., 1999). The sys- several fold more transgenic plants to isolate the plant
tem has therefore not been extensively adopted as a of interest and further crossing steps after the initial
marker gene system. transformation experiment. Furthermore, the strategy
is not suitable for vegetatively-propagated species.
3.8. Oxalate oxidase For vegetatively-propagated species the use of trans-
posons or homologous recombination to eliminate the
Oxalate oxidase (OxO: E.C. 1.2.3.4) activity has a marker genes may work but at very low efficiency.
narrow range of expression in cereals and appears to The use of transposons to reposition genes into a sta-
be absent in dicots. The wheat gene coding for OxO ble chromosomal location may provide an advantage
can function as a conditional reporter gene for mono- for certain applications. Currently, the research area
cot and dicot species (Simmonds et al., 2003). The as- of greatest promise is the use of site-specific recom-
say depends on the relatively inexpensive substrates, binases under the control of inducible promoters to
oxalic acid and 4-chloro-1-naphthol and permits rapid excise the selectable marker genes and excision ma-
histochemical localization of enzyme activity. Quanti- chinery once selection has been achieved (Ow, 2001).
tative measurements of OxO enzyme activity can also Concerns exist about pleiotropic effects induced by
be performed. the action of recombinases on cryptic excision sites
in the plant genomes, but the use of inducible pro-
moters may limit the extent of damage. Presently,
4. Marker-free strategies many of these processes are experimental and insuffi-
cient information is available to rate the commercial
4.1. Background significance of the technologies.
The rationalization for creating marker-free trans- 4.2. Co-transformation and segregation of marker
genic plants has been discussed in detail in several genes
reviews (Yoder and Goldsbrough, 1994; Ow, 2001;
Hare and Chua, 2002). For commercialization of trans- Co-transformation involves the simultaneous deliv-
genic plants it would simplify the regulatory process ery and integration of two or more separate genes. This
and improve consumer acceptance to remove gene se- may result in linkage of the genes at a single locus as
quences that are not serving a purpose in the final plant often occurs with biolistic-mediated transformation or
variety. For scientific purposes, eliminating the marker it may result in independently-segregating, unlinked
genes from the final plant would permit the use of ex- loci, as often occurs with Agrobacterium-mediated
perimental marker genes that have not undergone ex- transformation. Co-transformation provides unique
tensive biosafety evaluations or that may generate neg- advantages for the production of transgenic plants. It
ative pleiotropic effects in the plants. Furthermore, it allows the simultaneous insertion of a large number
would permit the recycling of useful marker genes for of genes, independent of gene sequence, into a plant
recurrent transformation of transgenic plants if they with a limited number of selectable marker genes. For
were eliminated prior to the next round of transforma- example, in rice, two to thirteen transgenes have been
tion. simultaneously inserted using biolistics (Chen et al.,
Although a number of strategies have been de- 1998; Wu et al., 2002). The co-transformation fre-
scribed in the scientific literature for generating quencies were very high, for example, 85% in the R0
generation for at least two genes (Chen et al., 1998). of the genes and therefore the recovery of marker-free
17% of R0 plants contained more than nine different plants. When compared to methods that produce plants
transgenes (Chen et al., 1998). As the co-transformed where the marker gene is linked to the gene of in-
genes integrated at a single locus they segregated to- terest, this method requires about a four-fold greater
gether. Similar results were obtained in soybean (Hadi production of transgenic lines to recover a comparable
et al., 1996). The high incidence of linkage using number of marker-free plants (Daley et al., 1998).
biolistic-mediated transformation would be important
for the manipulation of multi-genic traits using cloned 4.2.2. Co-transformation with single plasmids
genes but would be impractical for the elimination of carrying multiple T-DNA regions
marker genes from transgenic plants. An alternative approach for co-transformation pro-
An advantage of Agrobacterium-mediated co- posed by Komari et al. (1996) is the use of octopine
transformation technologies over biolistic transfor- strains with binary vectors that carry more than one
mation is that co-transformed genes often integrate T-DNA region. They demonstrated that this approach
into different loci in the plant genome. Unlinked se- yields higher frequencies of co-transformation than
lectable marker genes can then be segregated away mixtures of A. tumefaciens strains carrying sepa-
from the genes of interest and allow the production of rate vectors. In this study, the GUS and hpt genes
marker-free transgenic plants (reviewed by Ebinuma co-transformed tobacco and rice with about 50%
et al., 2001). This technology is not useful for plants frequency at unlinked loci permitting segregation
that reproduce vegetatively as segregation is essential of the GUS gene from the hpt selectable marker to
for the separation of the marker genes from the genes create marker-free plants. Although it is believed
of interest. that the interaction between the bacterial and plant
cells is the major factor influencing transformation
4.2.1. Co-transformation with separate plasmids in efficiency (Depicker et al., 1985), it was recently
one or two agrobacterium strains found that the relative size of the co-transforming
Agrobacterium-mediated co-transformation of T-DNA has a major impact (McCormac et al.,
non-selected genes with selectable marker genes has 2001). Co-transformation frequencies of 100% were
been demonstrated at relatively high frequencies in achieved in tobacco when the selected T-DNA was
a variety of dicot and cereal species. This has been two-fold larger than the non-selected T-DNA. The
demonstrated in a number of ways. Two separate elevation of co-transformation efficiency to practi-
strains of A. tumefaciens (Depicker et al., 1985; cal levels has been demonstrated (McCormac et al.,
McKnight et al., 1987) or A. rhizogenes (McKnight 2001). In maize, co-transformation with an octopine
et al., 1987) have been shown to co-transform tobacco strain carrying a binary vector with two T-DNAs
and/or tomato at frequencies of about 50% or bet- yielded co-transformation frequencies of 93% for the
ter. The T-DNA insertions were generally unlinked; bar and GUS genes in the R0 generation. 64% of the
however, co-transformation of B. napus with nopaline R1 progeny segregated as bar-free plants expressing
strains of A. tumefaciens resulted in a higher than GUS (Miller et al., 2002). This contrasted dramat-
expected occurrence of linked insertions indicating ically with the 11.7% co-transformation frequency
that variations in plants and strains could alter link- with mixed Agrobacterium strains (Miller et al.,
age relationships (DeBlock and Debrouwer, 1991). 2002). In barley, a similar approach with more com-
The tendency towards multiple T-DNA insertions pact vectors yielded 66% co-transformation frequen-
by nopaline strains may contribute to these observa- cies but only 24% of these segregated as marker-free
tions although the mechanisms involved are unknown plants perhaps because nopaline strains were required
(DeBlock and Debrouwer, 1991). for barley transformation (Matthews et al., 2001).
Using a single octopine A. tumefaciens strain con- The studies clearly demonstrate that marker-free
taining two separate binary vectors, co-transformation plants can be generated at varying efficiencies using
frequencies of >50% were obtained in tobacco and B. Agrobacterium-mediated co-transformation followed
napus for the GUS gene and nptII selectable marker by segregation of the genes in the subsequent sexual
gene. Insertions at different loci allowed segregation generations. This technology is not suitable for all
plant species and its efficiency is clearly dependent on ited use in plants that are vegetatively propagated or
a number of variables including the Agrobacterium have a long reproductive cycle. This technology also
strain used and the plant tissue being transformed. has limitations for pyramiding multiple genes because
introduction of the transposase in subsequent rounds
4.3. Transposon-mediated repositioning of genes of transformation and marker gene removal may result
in the transposition of the first transgene into another
4.3.1. Tranposition-mediated repositioning of the chromosomal location.
gene of interest
The maize Ac/Ds transposable element system has 4.3.2. Tranposition-mediated elimination of the
been used to create novel T-DNA vectors for sep- selectable marker gene
arating genes that are linked together on the same An alternative strategy for exploiting the Ac/Ds sys-
T-DNA after insertion into plants. Once integrated tem is to transpose the genes coding for the selectable
into the plant genome, the expression of the Ac trans- marker and the transposase from the T-DNA leaving
posase from within the T-DNA can induce the trans- only the gene of interest in the inserted copy of the
position of the gene of interest from the T-DNA to T-DNA. This research generated the ipt-type MAT
another chromosomal location. This results in the sep- (multi-auto-transformation) vector system which uses
aration of the gene of interest from the T-DNA and the ipt gene as a selectable marker and is designed to
selectable marker gene. The system is functional in a remove the ipt gene after transformation by using the
wide range of plants. It only requires the activity of Ac transposable element. This vector system supports
the Ac transposase which can be expressed from plant recurrent transformation for the pyrimiding of genes
promoters to enhance activity (Honma et al., 1993) into plants (Ebinuma et al., 1997a,b).
and the approximately 200 bp terminal repeat target Transgenic tobacco and hybrid aspen were trans-
sequences which must surround the gene to be transformed using the ipt gene as the selectable marker
posed (Goldsbrough et al., 1993). Although the cre- (Ebinuma et al., 1997a). The ipt gene was interesting
ation of marker-free transgenic plants is one outcome, in this study as it was used as both a negative and
the repositioning of the gene of interest within the positive selectable marker. In the first positive selec-
genome can also result in favourable position effects tion step, transformed tissue proliferated as adventi-
that can enhance the expression profile of the gene of tious shooty material that was abnormal in morphol-
interest without creating more transformation events. ogy and could not regenerate due to the overproduction
In tomato, transposition of the GUS marker gene and of cytokinin. In the second negative selection step, af-
the generation of nptII-free plants was demonstrated ter several weeks or months in culture, normal shoots
for plants with both single and multiple T-DNA in- appeared (due to the elimination of the ipt and trans-
sertions (Goldsbrough et al., 1993). In rice, a related posase genes by transposition) and regenerated into
approach was used to create hpt-free rice plants that transformed marker-free plants. This occurred at a fre-
expressed the Bt endotoxin coded by the cry 1B gene quency of about 5%. As the system does not require a
(Cotsaftis et al., 2002). In this study, the cry1B gene sexual reproduction step, it is an alternative for vege-
was placed in the leader sequence of a gfp marker tatively propagated germplasm and plants with a long
gene so that transposition could be monitored by the reproductive cycle (Ebinuma et al., 1997a).
activation of GFP activity. It was found that excision
and reinsertion occurred at very high frequencies (37 4.4. Intrachromosomal homologous recombination
and 25%) and plants were recovered with high lev- to remove selectable marker genes
els of resistance to striped stem borer (Cotsaftis et al.,
2002). The stability of the transposed gene seems to Studies on the use of homologous recombination to
include a tendency to less gene silencing as shown for eliminate selectable marker genes after insertion are
a transposed bar gene in barley (Koprek et al., 2001). few and presently poorly understood. The 352 bp at-
This technology relies on crossing plants to segre- tachment P (attP) region of bacteriophage ␭ is the tar-
gate the gene of interest from the marker gene and get for three specific proteins that mediate the inte-
the transposase; therefore, this technology is of lim- gration and excision of the phage within the E. coli
genome. In tobacco the attP region appears to func- (Hajdukiewicz, 2001). Furthermore, the constitutive
tion without the proteins to effect excision of DNA overexpression of Cre has been correlated with phe-
sequences flanked by the attP repeats (Zubco et al., notypic aberrations in plants (Coppoolse et al., 2003).
2000). Transgenic tobacco shoots transformed with a Solutions to this potential problem included the use
T-DNA vector in which the gene of interest was sepa- of inducible promoters (reviewed by Hare and Chua,
rated from the region carrying the marker genes nptII, 2002) or transient expression strategies to limit ex-
gfp and tms 2 by attP repeats were examined in the pression of the recombinase (Vergunst et al., 2000)
presence of naphthalene acetamide (NAM). The tms acting on nuclear genes. Selectable markers have also
2 gene from A. tumefaciens codes for an enzyme that been successfully removed from plastids using the
converts NAM to the auxin NAA, which prevents root Cre–lox system (Corneille et al., 2001).
development and induces callus production (Table 9).
The regeneration of roots under this counter selec- 4.5.1. Cre–lox
tion strategy was indicative of marker gene elimina- The Cre–lox system from bacteriophage P1 was
tion by intrachromosomal homologous recombination. the first of the recombination systems shown to be
This strategy is not always associated with homolo- effective in the generation of marker-free plants.
gous recombination and larger deletions may occur as The T-DNA vector carrying the gene of interest was
a result of illegitimate recombination (Zubco et al., constructed with lox sites flanking the hpt selectable
2000). marker gene and inserted into tobacco. The Cre re-
combinase was then introduced by a second round
4.5. Site-specific recombinase-mediated excision of of transformation to achieve precise excision of the
marker genes marker gene (Dale and Ow, 1991). This was subse-
quently confirmed with other plants and other marker
Several simple bacterial and fungal recombination genes. To avoid the introduction of marker genes
systems have been described in which single enzymes along with the Cre gene, it was found that transient
(e.g. Cre, FLP, R) acting on specific target sequences expression of the Cre-gene construct without selec-
(lox, FRT, RS, respectively) have been adapted tion was sufficient to yield enough Cre recombinase
for use in plants (reviewed by Ow, 2002; Ow and to create a small number of lines (0.25%) that were
Medberry, 1995). Each of the target sites is similar free of selectable markers and the Cre gene (Gleave
in that short oligonucleotides surrounded by short et al., 1999). A significant refinement of the strat-
inverted repeats determine the orientation of the tar- egy was developed using the ␤-estradiol-inducible
get site. Recombinase-mediated DNA rearrangements promoter system in which an artificial transcription
can include site-specific excision, integration, inver- factor, XVE was constructed for use in plants with
sion and interchromosomal recombination; therefore, its target promoter (Zuo et al., 2001). In this system,
the range of applications for this technology is very the gene of interest was separated from its promoter
broad. Rapid progress has been made in the develop- by a fragment containing the genes coding for the
ment of these technologies for generating marker-free XVE transcription factor, the nptII selectable marker
transgenic plants. The technologies have implica- and the Cre recombinase (under the control of the
tions for additional benefits such as the modification inducible promoter) surrounded by lox sites. Trans-
of copy number at insertions sites. For example, formation of Arabidopsis was achieved by selection
complex multicopy integration patterns generated for kanamycin resistance. Subsequent induction with
by biolistics-mediated transformation of wheat were ␤-estradiol resulted in the excision of the complete
reduced to single-copies by Cre-mediated recom- induction system along with the Cre recombinase
bination of the outermost copies (Srivastava et al., and selectable marker genes. The final product was
1999). A concern is that high levels of recombinase the reconstituted gene of interest, in this case GFP.
expression may result in genome rearrangements at In Arabidopsis, excision occurred in all of the plants
cryptic-target sites in plants. Although such sites have with high efficiency in the germline cells (29–66%)
not been described in nuclear genomes of plants, using a single transformation (Zuo et al., 2001).
chloroplast cryptic lox sites have been described This new strategy satisfies many of the criticisms
associated with the earlier applications of the tech- inducible glutathione-S-transferase (GST-II-27) pro-
nology as discussed in Section 4.5. Data with crop moter from maize. By driving the R gene with the
species is now needed to evaluate the full potential of GST-II-27 promoter, the frequency of marker-free
the system for agriculture. plants increased to 88%. Furthermore, 86% of these
had single T-DNA insertions (Sugita et al., 2000).
4.5.2. FLP–FRT The GST-II-27 promoter was induced by the herbi-
The FLP–FRT system derived from the Saccha- cide antidote ‘Safener R29148’ in tissue culture for
romyces cerevisiae 2␮ plasmid has also been tested 2 weeks after transfer of the ipt-induced shooty ex-
in plants. In tobacco and Arabidopsis, plants trans- plants to hormone-free solid media. As sexual cross-
formed with the FLP recombinase were crossed with ing was not required for the recovery of marker-free
plants transformed with T-DNA in which the GUS plants, the system was tested in hybrid aspen as
coding region is separated from the 35S promoter by a model for vegetatively propagated plants. Trans-
a hpt gene bracketed by FRT sites. This resulted in genic marker-free aspen were recovered with 21%
excision of the hpt gene and activation of the GUS efficiency (Matsunaga et al., 2002).
gene in all cases (Kilby et al., 1995). Interestingly, the A potential criticism of the technology is the depen-
soybean Gmhsp17.6L heat shock promoter was used dence on organogenesis whereas most economically-
and performed as an inducible promoter in a subset of important crops are regenerated by embryogenesis.
cells. In transgenic maize callus similar results were However, in rice the system has performed effectively
obtained and transient expression was shown to re- (25% efficiency) in generating transgenic marker-free
sult in excision at a frequency of 2–3% (Lyznik et al., plants through organogenesis in a single step without
1996). forming ipt-shooty intermediates using the 35S-driven
R gene (Endo et al., 2002).
4.5.3. R–RS
The R–RS system from Zygosaccharomyces rouxii
has been used in the MAT vectors as an alternative 5. Environmental risks of marker genes
to the Ac transposase-mediated transposition of the
genes as described above (reviewed by Ebinuma and The presence of selectable-marker genes in genet-
Komamine, 2001). Tobacco plants were transformed ically modified (GM) plants has raised public con-
with T-DNA vectors in which the ipt selectable marker cerns that they will be transferred to other organisms.
gene and the gene coding for the R recombinase were In the case of antibiotic resistance markers, there is a
surrounded by RS sites. The ipt gene provided the fear that the presence of these markers in GM crops
initial selection for morphological abnormalities (i.e. could lead to an increase in antibiotic resistant bacte-
the shooty phenotype). The A. rhizogenes rol genes rial strains. In the case of herbicide-resistance markers,
(Table 8) which confer the rooty phenotype have the concern is that the markers will contribute to the
also been used (Ebinuma et al., 1997b; Cui et al., creation of new aggressive weeds. Before GM crops
2001). Co-expression of the R recombinase, under are released for field trials or commercialization, these
the control of the 35S promotor, eventually excised issues are addressed as a fundamental part of the in-
the ipt and R genes resulting in the development of ternational regulatory process (MacKenzie, 2000; Nap
normal marker-free shoots at very high frequencies et al., 2003).
(39–70%; Sugita et al., 1999). 67% of marker-free
transgenic tobacco plants had more than three T-DNA 5.1. Marker gene flow to crops and related species
insertions. This was presumably due to the strong
constitutive expression of the R gene by the 35S pro- The potential for GM crops to become weeds or to
moter, which resulted in the removal of the ipt gene pass their transgenes to wild or weedy relatives is of-
in low-copy-number callus before transgenic shoots ten cited as a potential risk in the commercialization
could be generated. of transgenic crops. The potential risks of GM plants
To control excision events, the 35S promoter con- to the environment have been extensively reviewed
trolling the R gene was replaced with the chemically (Warwick et al., 1999; Wolfenbarger and Phifer, 2000;
Wilkensen, 2002; Dale et al., 2002; Conner et al., results. The report concludes that gene flow will occur
2003). between B. rapa and B. napus when they are grown in
Domestic crops have been grown near wild or close proximity but they did not detect gene flow with
weedy relatives over long periods of time. Gene flow any other close wild relative. The planting of barrier
to weedy relatives depends on whether hybridization crops to act as “absorbers” of GM pollen or changes
and introgression are possible. Most of the world’s in isolation distances for cross-pollinating transgenic
major crops can hybridize to wild relatives somewhere crops may help with containment (Eastham and Sweet,
where they are grown agriculturally (Ellstrand et al., 2002).
1999; Eastham and Sweet, 2002). Crop-to-weed gene
flow may lead to significant changes in the recipient 5.1.1. Strategies for restricting gene flow
wild population, and has been of particular concern A number of molecular approaches are being de-
where areas of crop cultivation coincide with centres veloped to restrict gene flow from GM plants to other
of crop origin or areas known for extensive genetic crops and wild plant populations. The development of
diversity (e.g., landraces, etc.); indeed hybridization transplastomic plants in which the transgenes are in-
has been implicated in the extinction of certain wild corporated into the chloroplast genome is a promising
relatives (reviewed in Ellstrand et al., 1999). technology being developed to reduce the probability
The potential spread of herbicide resistance (HR) to of transgene transfer through pollen dispersal (Daniell
wild species and non-transgenic crop plants has raised et al., 2002). A unique feature of plastids of most
separate concerns. Pollen flow between canola culti- plants is that they are maternally inherited, limiting the
vars with different herbicide-resistant traits is known potential spread of transgenes through pollen. A study
to result in unintentional gene stacking. In 1998 and to assess the likelihood of future transplastomic B.
1999, volunteer canola plants with multiple herbicide napus to hybridize with B. rapa demonstrated mater-
tolerances were identified in fields in Canada (Hall nal inheritance of chloroplasts in hybrids of B. napus
et al., 2000; Orson, 2002; Beckie et al., 2003; Warwick and B. rapa and concluded that there was negligible
and Miki, in press). Canola has numerous wild rela- pollen-mediated dispersal of chloroplasts from oilseed
tives in Canada and worldwide (Warwick et al., 1999; rape (Scott and Wilkinson, 1999). Although the au-
Eastham and Sweet, 2002; Warwick et al., 2003) and thors felt that gene flow would be rare if plants were
is able to hybridize with several related weedy species genetically engineered via the chloroplast genome,
(Scheffler and Dale, 1994; Eastham and Sweet, 2002; they could not entirely rule out the possibility that in-
Warwick et al., 2003). A 3-yr gene flow study be- trogression of B. rapa could occur if B. napus acted
tween B. napus and four related weedy species (B. as the female parent. So far, there have been no re-
rapa, Raphanus raphanistrum, Erucastrum gallicum, ports of transformation of B. napus chloroplasts. The
and Sinapis arvensis) in commercial HR canola fields transformation of plant chloroplasts is challenging and
has been conducted in Canada (Warwick et al., 2003). so far stable transplastomics have been identified only
Gene flow from HR B. napus to natural wild popu- in tobacco, tomato and potato (Daniell, 2002; Daniell
lations of B. rapa was confirmed in two commercial et al., 2002). Clearly, studies in other crop plants are
HR canola fields in Québec; thus, representing the required before this technology can be widely adopted.
first documented occurrence of transgene escape from A number of other approaches are being developed
commercially released transgenic crops into a natural to restrict gene flow from GM plants to other crops and
weed population. There was no evidence of gene flow to wild plant populations. Like plastid transformation
in the other three species. A study commissioned by they are applicable to transgenes in general and not just
DEFRA in the UK monitored the agricultural releases limited to selectable marker genes. These strategies
of genetically modified oilseed rape from 1994 until are designed to limit the spread of pollen, affect seed
the end of the year 2000 (Norris and Sweet, 2002). sterility or impose hybridization barriers. Most are still
This study found that depending on the environmen- in early stages of development and have limitations.
tal, varietal and agronomic factors in natural field con- Detailed descriptions are beyond the scope of this
ditions, the degree of outcrossing of GM plants with review and have been reviewed elsewhere (Daniell,
neighbouring related varieties can give very different 2002).
5.1.2. Need for marker gene removal DNA must survive restriction enzyme digestion by the
The potential spread of GM traits into weedy or host prior to incorporation into the genome by rare
wild relatives has fuelled debate over the necessity of DNA repair or recombination events (Neilsen et al.,
selectable marker genes in plants. Even if gene flow 1998; FAO/WHO, 2000). Furthermore, if a gene trans-
into other crops and natural plant populations does fer event did occur, considerable selective pressure
not pose an environmental or agricultural risk, it may would be required for the transfer event to become
still seriously reduce public acceptance of genetically stabilized (Neilsen et al., 1998).
modified plants. The selectable marker will only con- Studies have looked for horizontal gene transfer
tribute to weediness if there is a selective advantage of antibiotic resistance genes from transgenic-plant
for the presence of the marker in the weedy plant. nuclear DNA into native bacteria. No one has demon-
In future crop development selectable markers can strated that this can occur under natural conditions
be chosen that do not confer a potential competitive (Syvanen, 1999; Smalla et al., 2000). However, Kay
advantage. In the case of antibiotic resistance genes, et al. (2002b) recently showed that gene transfer can
there is no evidence that these genes will provide occur from transplastomic tobacco plants if the receiv-
any selectable advantage. However, it may be more ing microorganism contains sequences homologous to
difficult to predict what impact individual selectable the chloroplast DNA. Transplastomic plants contain
markers that alter plant metabolism may have if they about 10,000 copies of the transgene per cell compared
become introgressed into wild species. to a copy number of less than 10 in plants that have
undergone genetic modification of the nuclear genome
5.2. Horizontal gene transfer (Daniell et al., 1998). The increased copy number
potentially increases the probability of gene transfer
The use of antibiotic resistance selectable marker from plant DNA to bacterial cells. Kay et al. (2002b)
genes in genetically modified crops have raised con- conducted studies with transplastomic tobacco plants
cerns about the potential transfer of these genes to gut containing the aadA gene, conferring resistance to
and soil bacteria or to the cells of animals who eat these spectinomycin and streptomycin, to determine if
plants. This has been reviewed by a number of authors gene transfer to bacteria could be detected. The soil
(Dröge et al., 1998; Neilsen et al., 1998; FAO/WHO, bacterium Acinetobacter sp. strain BD413 was used
2000; Smalla et al., 2000; Thompson, 2000) and the to co-infect the transplastomic plants with the plant
general conclusion from available evidence is that the pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum. Acinetobacter
transfer of DNA from genetically modified plants to sp.strain BD413 develops a competent state while ac-
other organisms would be an extremely rare occur- tively colonizing plants infected with R. solanacearum
rence. (Kay et al., 2002a). To optimize the probability of
gene transfer, the Acinetobactor sp. BD413(pBAB2)
5.2.1. Mechanisms of horizontal gene transfer and contained a plasmid with homology to the chloroplast
occurrence genome. Acinetobacter sp. transformants containing
Horizontal gene transfer between bacteria occurs by the aadA gene were isolated from plants co-infected
three general mechanisms: transduction (viral transfer with Acinetobacter sp. BD413 (pBAB2) and R.
of DNA), conjugation (cell to cell mediated transfer solanacearum. However, no Acinetobacter transfor-
of genes on plasmids) and transformation (uptake of mants were obtained when homologous sequences
exogenous DNA by bacteria) (Neilsen et al., 1998). were omitted or when experiments were conducted
The most likely mechanism to contribute to the trans- with nuclear transgenic plants. The increased gene
fer of GM plant DNA to bacteria is called “natu- copy number associated with chloroplast integration
ral transformation”(Neilsen et al., 1998; Bertolla and of the transgene, combined with DNA sequence ho-
Simonet, 1999). There are a number of barriers that mology, increased the frequency of transformation
must be overcome for horizontal gene transfer to oc- to a detectable level. These recent data raise the
cur: the relevant gene must survive digestion in the possibility that horizontal gene transfer may occur
intestinal tract or soil; the bacteria or mammalian cells under optimal natural conditions from transplastomic
must be competent to take up exogenous DNA; the plants when the bacterial genome contains sequences
with homology to the plant transgene (Kay et al., markers, such as nptII and hpt, are widely dispersed
2002b). in nature and have limited therapeutic use (US FDA,
Until recently, the production of transplastomic 1998). Given the low probability of horizontal gene
plants in tobacco has relied almost totally on the use transfer from GM plants and the limited use of the
of the aadA gene as a selectable marker, however new antibiotics to which nptII and hpt confer resistance,
technologies are being developed to replace the use these selectable markers would not contribute in any
of antibiotic resistance markers in plastids. Methods meaningful way to increased antibiotic resistance.
involving homologous recombination (Iamtham and Although there is no evidence to suggest that the
Day, 2000) or the Cre–lox site-specific recombination currently used antibiotic resistance markers, such
system (Hajdukiewicz, 2001; Corneille et al., 2001) as nptII, pose any risks to humans, animals or the
are being developed to remove the aadA gene after environment, to alleviate public concerns recommen-
chloroplast transformation. Also, alternative markers dations have been made to eliminate all antibiotic
for chloroplast transformation such as betaine alde- resistance genes from GM plants as new technologies
hyde dehydrogenase (Table 6) are being developed become available (FAO/WHO, 2000; EFB, 2001).
(Daniell et al., 2001).
5.2.2. Biosafety and horizontal gene transfer 6. Concluding comments

In recent years, growing public concern regard-
ing the spread of antibiotic resistance has lim- Examination of the scientific literature revealed that
ited consumer acceptance of genetically modified a large number of selectable marker genes exist, but
plants, especially in Europe (European Federation of few have been adopted for wide use in the production
Biotechnology, 2001). Of particular public concern of transgenic plants. The research needed to evaluate
are the blaTEM1 and aadA genes, found in some their effectiveness and biosafety is considerable and
GM plants, that are driven by bacterial promoters requires many years and substantial resources to com-
(Table 2). These genes were used for selectable mark- plete. For commercialization, the need to conform
ers in bacteria and are present in GM plants because with regulatory guidelines will often dictate whether
of limitations in vector cloning technology available new systems will be adopted because of the expenses
at the time of plant development. They are not ex- that must be incurred to provide the data on the safety
pressed in the GM plants. These antibiotic resistance of the system. The major selectable markers (nptII,
markers are widely distributed in nature and the pos- hpt, bar) that are most prominently used by the scien-
sibility of increasing the reservoir of antibiotic resis- tific community and for commercialization are among
tance through horizontal gene transfer from plants is the first generation of selectable marker genes to be
extremely remote (Thompson, 2000). Kurtland et al. developed that worked efficiently in a variety of appli-
(2003) suggest that genes transferred by horizon- cations. They have proven to be effective for the de-
tal gene transfer would be quickly eliminated from velopment of the first generation of transgenic plants.
the genome particularly in the absence of selection Experience is now accumulating that will dic-
pressure. Currently, available cloning technology and tate the parameters that will be needed for the next
vector design eliminates the presence of residual bac- generation of selectable marker genes and a similar
terial selectable marker genes in future GM plants. amount of time and effort will be required to develop
Although, the main cause for concern is the them. Studies on horizontal gene flow and pollen
widespread overuse of antibiotics in human and vet- flow to non-target organisms are just providing the
erinary medicine (Saylers, 1996), concerns about the important information needed to define some of these
potential spread of antibiotic resistance genes through parameters. Progress has been made in extending the
horizontal gene transfer has led to the recommenda- traditional approach of using a selective agent with
tion that antibiotics widely used for clinical or veteri- high specificity for an enzyme that will encourage
nary use, not be used as selectable markers in plants the growth of transformed cells. The bacterial phos-
(US FDA, 1998). The antibiotic resistance marker phomannose isomerase gene, manA, is an example of
genes that are currently widely used as plant selectable such as gene. The use of mannose as a selective agent
is less toxic to untransformed cells than antibiotics, results in model systems. As these technologies are
herbicides or drugs and therefore seems to yield still being developed, they may not be ready for gen-
greater transformation frequencies. Whether it will eral use for some time.
provide a greater margin of safety than the major se- Judging from the use of transgenic plants in pub-
lectable markers that are currently in use needs to be lished research, the selectable marker genes in current
determined. The rationale for the development of new use have served scientific discovery very well. Given
selectable markers appears to be public perception the acreage of transgenic crops planted worldwide
and acceptability. without any harm to health or environment, the se-
Major conceptual steps have been made in the eval- lectable markers do not appear to be a significant risk.
uation of genes that control development. Progress is For the future, continued development of selectable
being made in studying genes that control organo- marker gene systems is very important as scientists
genesis and it has been demonstrated that they may challenge the capacity of transgenic plants and deter-
function as selectable marker genes. In the future, mine more complex applications for their use.
genes that control embryogenesis will also prove use-
ful. When modifying plant metabolism and develop-
Acknowledgements
ment, pleiotropic effects are likely to occur and must
be fully understood. The first generations of selectable The authors are grateful to Drs. Suzanne Warwick
markers were usually borrowed from bacterial systems and Lining Tian for reviewing the manuscript and pro-
and pleiotropic effects have not been seen in the field viding helpful comments. The study was supported
performance of the plants containing them. Generally, by a research contract to Agriculture and Agri-Food
bacterial detoxification systems are distinct enough Canada from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
from plant processes that phenotypic interactions be- ECORC contribution number 03-280.
tween the marker genes and the co-transforming genes
are unlikely; however, the use of the newer selectable
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Selectable Markers Miki 2004

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Selectable Markers Miki 2004

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Journal of Biotechnology 107 (2004) 193–232

Keywords: Selectable marker genes; Transgenic plants; Biosafety

1. Introduction of transgenic crops were grown globally (James,

expressed in plant cells.

Table 3 the erroneous implication is that systems, such as the

2-Deoxyglucose DOGR 1 2-Deoxyglucose-6-phosphate Saccharomyces cerevisiae Nuclear Kunze et al., 2001

5-Fluorocytosine codA Cytosine deaminase Escherichia coli Nuclear, Stougaard, 1993;

2.2. Conditional-positive selection systems using and ATP-dependent O-adenylation by nucleotidyl-

All of the effective sources of antibiotic resistance 2.2.1.1. Aminoglycoside-O-phosphotransferases.

5.2.2. Biosafety and horizontal gene transfer 6. Concluding comments

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