ABSTRACT
Transformation is a molecular biology method to alter the genetic material of cells by incorporation of desired foreign genetic material by direct and indirect methods. The Agrobacterium tumefaciens and A. rhizogenes mediated are the direct transformation methods whereas, the protoplast transformation, electroporation, particle bombardment, microinjection, sonoporation, lipofection, calcium phosphate, laser transfection, chloroplast transformation, and mediated transformation are the indirect methods. The plant transformation has become a versatile method for the incorporation of desired characteristics in the selected plant for the benefits of human society. Agrobacterium tumefaciens is the most successful and popular technique compared to other physical/mechanical techniques. Agrobacterium infection has been used for transfer of foreign DNA into a number of dicotyledonous species (utilizing its plasmids as vectors). Arabidopsis thaliana was stably transformed with high efficiency using T-DNA transfer by agrobacterium. Agrobacterium-mediated transformation using the floral dipping method is the most widely used method to transform Arabidopsis. Genetic transformation mediated by agrobacterium is a simple and comparatively less expensive than other methods of transformation. Transgenic crop obtained through agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation have better fertility percentage.
