Optimization of the Agrobacterium mediated transient gene expression in melon leaves

Transient expression is a promising system for plant pathogen interaction studies. To establish Agrobacterium mediated transient expression in Melon effects of Agrobacterium strains on two standard melon lines, Charentais-Fom2 and BG5384, were evaluated using agroinjection method. The results revealed LBA4404 has compatible interaction with the both lines. The LBA4404 strain was transformed by the pBI121 and pCAMBIA3301 expression vectors and confirmed by colony PCR technique using the PSh3-F/R primers. The efficiency of transient transformation of the melon leaves was evaluated 48 hours after Agroinjection of the LBA4404 strain containing pCAMBIA3301 by the histochemical GUS assay. The leaves that were injected by LBA4404 containing pBI121 showed GUS activity and revealed that the injected Agrobacterium cells were alive in leaves of the melon lines. Both of the melon lines transiently expressed the GUS reporter gene using Agroinjection. These findings will be used in the future studies to evaluate function of candidate effector genes in interaction with the melon standard lines.