Agrobacterium mediated transformation of the liverwort, Marchantia polymorpha
9th July 2007 Kimitsune Ishizaki (ishizaki@lif.kyoto-u.ac.jp)
Takayuki Kohchi (tkohchi@lif.kyoto-u.ac.jp)

1) Liquid culture of the liverwort cells from spores> Prepare surface-sterilized sporandisporangiums> Add 100 µL sH20 to 1 sporandisporangium (i.e. 700 µL to 7 sporandisporangiums) and suspend the spores bypippeting.
> Transfer the 100 µL spore suspension to 25 mL 0M51C a) media in 100 mL flask.
> Culture the cells under continuous white light (60 µmol m-2s-1) at 130 rpm, and 22 ºC for 7 days.

2) Preparation of Agrobacterium> Prepare streak plates of Agrobacterium b) carrying binary vector c) onto LB medium containing antibiotic forplasmid of interest plus Rifampicin (100 µg / mL) for Agrobacterium. Incubate for 2 days at 28 ºC. The plates
can be stored for 1 month at 4 ºC.
> Pick a single colony off the plate into a 5 mL LB medium containing antibiotic for plasmid of interest plus
Rifampicin (100 µg / mL). Culture for 2 days at 28 ºC.
> Centrifuge cultures for 15 minutes at 2000 × g.
> Pour off supernatant and add to a 10 mL 0M51C medium containing 100 µM Acetosyringone d) to resuspendcells.
> Culture the Agrobacterium for ~6 hours at 28 ºC with shaking.

3) Co-cultivation of the liverwort cells and Agrobacterium> Add 1 mL of Agrobacterium suspension prepared in step 2 (above) into the 7-day culture of liverwort cells.
> Add Acetosyringone to the final concentration of 100 µM.
> Culture the liverwort for 2 further days under continuous white light 60 µmol m-2s-1 at 130 rpm and 22 ºC.

4) Selection of transformants> Collect the liverwort cells with a 20-µm square grid nylon mesh attached to one side of a 3 cm diameter, 4cm
long glass tube.
> Wash the cells 3 times with ~ 25 mL 0M51C medium.
> Recover the cells with spatula and place them onto 0M51C agar medium containing appropriate antibiotics, i.e.
10 µg / mL hygromycin, plus 100 µg / mL Claforane) .
>Incubate the liverwort cells under continuous white light 60 µmol m-2s-1at 22 º C. Transformants will be visible
after 1~2 weeks.

Fig.1 An example of successful Agrobacterium transformation of the liverwort, Marchantia polymorpha.
Transformants grew on selective 0M51C medium containing 10 µg / ml hygromycin.

Fig. 2 GUS staining of pIG121-Hm transformants. pIG121-Hm is a binary vector containing
CaMV35S:intron-gusA(pIG121-Hm was kindly provided by Prof. Kenzo Nakamura, Nagoya University)

a) 0M51C medium (for 1 litre)
10 OM51C stock
2% Sucrose
0.03% L-glutamine
0.1% Casamino acids(pH5.5 with 1N KOH)
Agar 14 g / litre

100 mL
20 g
0.3 g
1.0 g

<10 X 0M51C stock for 4 litre (store at -30℃)>
KNO3
NH4NO3MgSO4 7H20
CaCl2 2H2O
KH2PO4EDTA-NaFe(III)B5-micronutrient
B5-vitamin
KI solution (750 mg / 100 mL) 4 mL

80 g
16 g
14.8 g
12 g
11 g
1.6 g
40 mL
40 mL
4L

<B5-Vitamin for 100 mL (store at -30 ℃)>
InositolNicotinic acid
Pyridoxine-HClThiamine-HCl<B5-micronutrient for 100 mL (store at -30 ℃)>
NaMo04 2H20
CuSO4 5H20
CoCl2 6H20
ZnSO4 7H20
MnSO4 7H20
H3BO310 g
100 mg
100 mg
1g
100 mL25 mg
2.5 mg
2.5 mg
200 mg
1g
300 mg
100 mLb) Agrobacterium C58 C1 pGV2260 has been tested for transformation of the liverwort in our lab.
c) CaMV35S:hpt works fine as a marker and the transformants can grow on 0M51C medium containing 10 µg /mL hygromycin. nosP: hpt works but not as efficiently as CaMV35S:hpt.
d) 3’,5’-Dimethoxy-4’-hydroxy-acetophenone. 100 mM stock = 19.2 mg / ml in DMSOe) Cefotaxime sodium: Cefem antibiotic to prevent Agrobacterium growth.