What Is a Gene Gun?

Gene gun technology, also known as Biolistic Technology or Particle Bombardment Technology, is the use of gunpowder explosion or high-pressure gas acceleration to send the spherical gold powder or tungsten powder particles wrapped with DNA directly into the complete tissue. Or a technology in cells. It is a method in gene transfer technology. The basic principle is to use a particle acceleration device to make micron-sized gold or tungsten (they have large specific gravity and stable chemical properties) wrapped with foreign genes to obtain sufficient momentum to penetrate into target cells or tissues.

Gene gun

Gene gun technology, also known as Biolistic Technology or Particle Bombardment Technology, is the use of gunpowder explosion or high-pressure gas to accelerate the spherical gold powder wrapped with DNA or

The history of gene guns can be traced back to 1987.

The first generation gene gun was a bench-type gene gun, of which the gunpowder type gene gun was the most primitive type of gene gun. The earliest gene gun was developed by Sanford, Cornell University in 1987 in cooperation with engineering experts Wolf and Kallen

1. Gene is transfected into target cell, tissue, organ or living body

2. Study of transient expression of gene function

3. Research on functional stability performance

4. Genetic or cancer related research

5. Research and application of DNA vaccine

6. Research related to gene therapy

7. Research on Gene Transgenic Plants

8. Genetic engineering or drug-related research

The advantages of gene gun in cotton genetic modification

Among the cotton transgenic technologies developed so far, Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation is the most widely used. Since Umbeck and others successfully obtained transgenic cotton plants through Agrobacterium tumefaciens in 1987, Agrobacterium tumefaciens has gradually become the most popular transformation method in the world, and great progress has been made. The Cotton Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has successfully established an efficient and stable large-scale transformation system for more than 20 cotton varieties, realized assembly line operations, and established an efficient and industrialized cotton transgenic technology system. Although the Agrobacterium-mediated method is a transformation technology that is relatively complete in theory and practice, and has been widely used for the transformation of dicotyledonous plants, this method is limited by the range of host genotypes, and it is difficult to use many excellent varieties (lines). This method performs transformation, and the transformation procedure is cumbersome and complicated. Although the pollen tube channel transformation method does not have genotype and species control, its transformation technology is not perfect, and there is no systematic research on the transformation mechanism, which is often limited to the flowering period. Therefore, there is a need to develop effective gene transformation methods.

Ye Wuwei and others from the Cotton Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences developed a method for rapid transformation of cotton gene gun in vivo in 2013. The third generation portable gene gun and optimized transformation parameters make micro-trauma to flower buds and pollen during living transformation. , Greatly shortening the cycle of obtaining transgenic plants. The method includes the following steps: (1) bombarding a vector containing foreign genes into pollen of male cotton using gene gun bombardment; (2) pollinating male pollen from male parent cotton after gene gun bombardment to living female cotton Medium; (3) The seeds bred by the mother cotton after pollination are genetically modified cotton seeds, and the cotton's gene transformation is realized. This method does not require tissue culture steps, and can directly achieve gene transformation on live cotton, which is practical, easy to operate, does not rely on tissue culture, and has good stability. ^[2]