Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 11:30 AM
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Expressing the Bacterial Nitroreductase Gene in Creeping Bentgrass for Phytoremediation of the Explosive, TNT.

Gengyun Zhang1, Neil C. Bruce2, Elizabeth L. Rylott2, Antonio Palazzo3, Sharon L. Doty1, and Stuart E. Strand1. (1) University of Washington, Winkenwerder Hall, Rm 213, 3900 15th Ave NE,, Seattle, WA 98195, (2) CNAP, Dept. of Biology, University of York, London, United Kingdom, (3) US Army, USA CRREL, 72 Lyme Rd., Hanover, NH 03755-1290

Phytoremediation refers to the use of plants to remove pollutants from the environment or to render them harmless. It provides a low cost and aesthetic way for pollutant remediation. TNT and RDX are widespread toxic contaminants at military training ranges. TNT and RDX are toxic, mutagenic and have a serious impact on the environment and human health. Recent advances have shown that transgenic plants, such as tobacco, Arabdopsis and poplar, contained the bacterial nfs I and XplA genes, are effective for phytodetoxification. Perennial grass species, such as turfgrasses, due to their wide geographic distribution and their ability to grow and cover ground totally year round, are excellent candidates for phytoremediation. In order to test the performance of the nfs I gene in perennial grasses, the nfs I gene was introduced into creeping bentgrass with co-transformation method mediated by Agrobacterium. From 8 dishes of transformed embryogenic callus induced from nodes of a single creeping bentgrass strain, 43 regeneration lines were obtained from 62 hygromycin resistant callus lines. The integration of the nfs I gene was confirmed. Results of TNT stress test with culture medium supplemented with TNT indicated that some transgenic lines showed obvious improvement on TNT toxicity tolerance at 0.15 mM TNT level.