Arabidopsis can be stably transformed using Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transfer of T-DNA. We describe the generation of transgenic plants via root transformation in tissue culture, which can be useful for transforming sterile mutants. - [Read Root Transformation of Arabidopsis Protocol]
A. tumefaciens is a soil-dwelling bacterium that transforms normal plant cells into tumor-forming cells by inserting a piece of bacterial DNA (the transfer, or "T," DNA) into the plant cell genome. The Ti plasmid also carries many of the transfer functions for mobilizing the T-DNA. This article provides a brief discussion of the principles of T-DNA transformation, including consideration of T-DNA vectors and their hosts. - [Read Vectors and Agrobacterium Hosts for Arabidopsis Transformation Protocol]