Plant Transformation Facility

Located in Agronomy Hall next to Bessey Hall, the Plant transformation Facility is managed by Dr. Kan Wang and offers services and research partnerships for the genetic transformation of maize, rice, and soybean. The facility uses the Bio-Rad Biolistic Apparatus and Agrobacterium tumefaciens as gene delivery systems for transformation of corn immature zygotic embryos and callus, and the Agrobacterium-mediated transformation method for rice and soybean. In addition to transformation services, the facility also provides a variety of instrumentation, technical assistance, consultation and training to individuals and groups of researchers to conduct plant transformation themselves. Major equipment in the facility includes a Bio-Rad Biolistic PDS-1000/He Apparatus, dissecting microscopes, Percival biological incubators, laminar flow hoods, a refrigerated shaker incubator and an SZH10 Olympus fluorescent microscope with digital camera for GFP detection. The fee for the rice transformation service (to plantlet) is $200 per ten events.