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Rigoulot SB, Park J, Fabish J, Seaberry EM, Parrish A, Meier KA, Whinna R, Dong S. Enabling High-throughput Transgene Expression Studies Using Automated Liquid Handling for Etiolated Maize Leaf Protoplasts. J Vis Exp 2024. [PMID: 38436377 DOI: 10.3791/65989] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/05/2024] Open
Abstract
The field of plant biotechnology has witnessed remarkable advancements in recent years, revolutionizing the ability to manipulate and engineer plants for various purposes. However, as research in this field increases in diversity and becomes increasingly sophisticated, the need for early, efficient, dependable, and high-throughput transient screening solutions to narrow down strategies proceeding to stable transformation is more apparent. One method that has re-emerged in recent years is the utilization of plant protoplast, for which methods of isolation and transfection are available in numerous species, tissues, and developmental stages. This work describes a simple automated protocol for the randomized preparation of plasmid within a 96-well plate, a method for the isolation of etiolated maize leaf protoplast, and an automated transfection procedure. The adoption of automated solutions in plant biotechnology, exemplified by these novel liquid handling protocols for plant protoplast transfection, represents a significant advancement over manual methods. By leveraging automation, researchers can easily overcome the limitations of traditional methods, enhance efficiency, and accelerate scientific progress.
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Rigoulot SB, Barco B, Zhang Y, Zhang C, Meier KA, Moore M, Fabish J, Whinna R, Park J, Seaberry EM, Gopalan A, Dong S, Chen Z, Que Q. Automated, High-Throughput Protoplast Transfection for Gene Editing and Transgene Expression Studies. Methods Mol Biol 2023; 2653:129-149. [PMID: 36995624 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-3131-7_9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/31/2023]
Abstract
In an era of cost-efficient gene synthesis and high-throughput construct assembly, the onus of scientific experimentation is on the rate of in vivo testing for the identification of top performing candidates or designs. Assay platforms that are relevant to the species of interest and in the tissue of choice are highly desirable. A protoplast isolation and transfection method that is compatible with a large repertoire of species and tissues would be the platform of choice. A necessary aspect of this high-throughput screening approach is the need to handle many delicate protoplast samples at the same time, which is a bottleneck for manual operation. Such bottlenecks can be mitigated with the use of automated liquid handlers for the execution of protoplast transfection steps. The method described within this chapter utilizes a 96-well head for simultaneous, high-throughput initiation of transfection. While initially developed and optimized for use with etiolated maize leaf protoplasts, the automated protocol has also been demonstrated to be compatible with other established protoplast systems, such as soybean immature embryo derived protoplast, similarly described within. This chapter also includes instructions for a sample randomization design to reduce the impact of edge effects, which might be present when microplates are used for fluorescence readout following transfection. We also describe a streamlined, expedient, and cost-effective protocol for determining gene editing efficiencies using the T7E1 endonuclease cleavage assay with a publicly available image analysis tool.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Brenden Barco
- Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
| | - Yingxiao Zhang
- Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
| | - Chengjin Zhang
- Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
| | - Kerry A Meier
- Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
| | - Matthew Moore
- Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
| | - Jonathan Fabish
- Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
| | - Rachel Whinna
- Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
| | - Jeongmoo Park
- Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
| | - Erin M Seaberry
- Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
| | - Aditya Gopalan
- Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
| | - Shujie Dong
- Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
| | - Zhongying Chen
- Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
| | - Qiudeng Que
- Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.
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Rigoulot SB, Schimel TM, Lee JH, Sears RG, Brabazon H, Layton JS, Li L, Meier KA, Poindexter MR, Schmid MJ, Seaberry EM, Brabazon JW, Madajian JA, Finander MJ, DiBenedetto J, Occhialini A, Lenaghan SC, Stewart CN. Imaging of multiple fluorescent proteins in canopies enables synthetic biology in plants. Plant Biotechnol J 2021; 19:830-843. [PMID: 33179383 PMCID: PMC8051605 DOI: 10.1111/pbi.13510] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2019] [Accepted: 10/31/2020] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Reverse genetics approaches have revolutionized plant biology and agriculture. Phenomics has the prospect of bridging plant phenotypes with genes, including transgenes, to transform agricultural fields. Genetically encoded fluorescent proteins (FPs) have revolutionized plant biology paradigms in gene expression, protein trafficking and plant physiology. While the first instance of plant canopy imaging of green fluorescent protein (GFP) was performed over 25 years ago, modern phenomics has largely ignored fluorescence as a transgene expression device despite the burgeoning FP colour palette available to plant biologists. Here, we show a new platform for stand-off imaging of plant canopies expressing a wide variety of FP genes. The platform-the fluorescence-inducing laser projector (FILP)-uses an ultra-low-noise camera to image a scene illuminated by compact diode lasers of various colours, coupled with emission filters to resolve individual FPs, to phenotype transgenic plants expressing FP genes. Each of the 20 FPs screened in plants were imaged at >3 m using FILP in a laboratory-based laser range. We also show that pairs of co-expressed fluorescence proteins can be imaged in canopies. The FILP system enabled a rapid synthetic promoter screen: starting from 2000 synthetic promoters transfected into protoplasts to FILP-imaged agroinfiltrated Nicotiana benthamiana plants in a matter of weeks, which was useful to characterize a water stress-inducible synthetic promoter. FILP canopy imaging was also accomplished for stably transformed GFP potato and in a split-GFP assay, which illustrates the flexibility of the instrument for analysing fluorescence signals in plant canopies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen B. Rigoulot
- Department of Plant SciencesUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTNUSA
- Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology (CASB)University of Tennessee Institute of AgricultureKnoxvilleTNUSA
| | - Tayler M. Schimel
- Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology (CASB)University of Tennessee Institute of AgricultureKnoxvilleTNUSA
- Department of MechanicalAerospace and Biomedical EngineeringUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTNUSA
| | - Jun Hyung Lee
- Department of Plant SciencesUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTNUSA
- Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology (CASB)University of Tennessee Institute of AgricultureKnoxvilleTNUSA
| | - Robert G. Sears
- Department of Plant SciencesUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTNUSA
- Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology (CASB)University of Tennessee Institute of AgricultureKnoxvilleTNUSA
| | - Holly Brabazon
- Department of Plant SciencesUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTNUSA
- Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology (CASB)University of Tennessee Institute of AgricultureKnoxvilleTNUSA
- Brabazon AppsKnoxvilleTNUSA
| | - Jessica S. Layton
- Department of Plant SciencesUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTNUSA
- Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology (CASB)University of Tennessee Institute of AgricultureKnoxvilleTNUSA
| | - Li Li
- Department of Plant SciencesUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTNUSA
- Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology (CASB)University of Tennessee Institute of AgricultureKnoxvilleTNUSA
| | - Kerry A. Meier
- Department of Plant SciencesUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTNUSA
- Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology (CASB)University of Tennessee Institute of AgricultureKnoxvilleTNUSA
| | - Magen R. Poindexter
- Department of Plant SciencesUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTNUSA
- Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology (CASB)University of Tennessee Institute of AgricultureKnoxvilleTNUSA
| | - Manuel J. Schmid
- Department of Plant SciencesUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTNUSA
- Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology (CASB)University of Tennessee Institute of AgricultureKnoxvilleTNUSA
| | - Erin M. Seaberry
- Department of Plant SciencesUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTNUSA
- Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology (CASB)University of Tennessee Institute of AgricultureKnoxvilleTNUSA
| | | | - Jonathan A. Madajian
- Mission Support and Test Services Special Technology LaboratorySanta BarbaraCAUSA
| | | | - John DiBenedetto
- Mission Support and Test Services Special Technology LaboratorySanta BarbaraCAUSA
| | - Alessandro Occhialini
- Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology (CASB)University of Tennessee Institute of AgricultureKnoxvilleTNUSA
- Department of Food ScienceUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTNUSA
| | - Scott C. Lenaghan
- Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology (CASB)University of Tennessee Institute of AgricultureKnoxvilleTNUSA
- Department of Food ScienceUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTNUSA
| | - C. Neal Stewart
- Department of Plant SciencesUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTNUSA
- Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology (CASB)University of Tennessee Institute of AgricultureKnoxvilleTNUSA
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