[DIYbio] Re: Plant Engineering

Greetings everyone!

I have not been on here is a while as I have been excessively busy with school and academic research. I am curious if anyone has any experience with engineering plants. My family has grown our own vegetables for as long as I can remember, and I would like to see if I can bring anything new to the garden. I realize that genetic engineering through Agrobacterium tumefaciens or gene transfection if a bit out of range for a DIYer, but there are some other techniques I am curious about. I know that there are several compounds that can be used to induce polyploidy. Some are hard to come by, but it seems that Oryzalin, a microtubule disruptor is sometime used as an herbicide. In fact, according to one study I came across, it may be more effective than colchicine, which appears to be the standard in the industry. Paper here: http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/43/7/2248.full

I know polyploid plants tend to have exaggerated fruits, but do you know of any other features I may turn up with if I attempt this (besides sterility with odd-number ploidies).

Another technique I am curious about is protoplast fusion. I was able to find some nifty instructions for home micropropagation by digging through some old posts: http://www.kitchenculturekit.com/StiffAffordablePTCforhobbyists.htm

That covers the culture part, but I am a bit lost on the whole fusion part. I did some protoplast experiments a while ago in a school lab, but I no longer have the protocol anywhere to be found. The basics seem pretty simple. Isolate the protoplast from cell walls by mechanical or enzymatic means, then you can use electricity or some chemical reagents to induce fusion. Would a crude lysate from some E. coli function as a decent substitute for cellulase? And what chemical means are there to fuse the protoplasts? Thanks for any help or direction you can provide!

-Ethan