Transposable elements as plant transformation vectors for long stretches of foreign DNA

The production of transgenic plants is now routine for most crops. However, using currently available transformation methods it is still difficult and time-consuming to obtain a collection of transformed individuals containing single or low-copy-number, intact transgenic inserts. Here we describe a set of broad-hostrange transformation vectors based on the Ac/Ds transposition system that improve both transformation efficiency and the quality of transgenic loci. These vectors efficiently deliver long stretches of foreign DNA into the genome, leading to transgenic strains containing an intact single-copy insert of 10kb. This type of vector could be an important additional tool for the production of transgenic plants with the well-defined, foreign DNA inserts required for biosafety approval and commercialisation.