Agrobacterium-Mediated Transient Transformation of Marchantia Liverworts

Agrobacterium -mediated transient gene expression is a rapid and useful approach for characterizing functions of gene products in planta . However, the practicability of the method in the model liverwort Marchantia polymorpha has not yet been thoroughly described. Here we report a simple and robust method for Agrobacterium -mediated transient transformation of Marchantia thalli and its applicability. When thalli of M. polymorpha were co-cultured with Agrobacterium tumefaciens carrying GUS genes, GUS staining was observed primarily in assimilatory filaments and rhizoids. GUS activity was detected 2 days after infection and saturated 3 days after infection. We were able to transiently co-express fluorescently tagged proteins with proper localizations. Furthermore, we demonstrate that our method can be used as a novel pathosystem to study liverwort-bacteria interactions. We also provide evidence that air chambers support bacterial colonization.