Plant phosphomannose isomerase as a selectable marker for rice transformation

The E. coli phosphomannose isomerase (EcPMI) gene is widely used as a selectable marker gene (SMG) in mannose (Man) selection-based plant transformation. Although some plant species exhibit significant PMI activity and active PMIs were even identified in Man-sensitive plants, whether plant PMIs can be used as SMGs remains unclear. In this study, we isolated four novel PMI genes from Chlorella variabilis and Oryza sativa. Their isoenzymatic activities were examined in vitro and compared with that of EcPMI. The active plant PMIs were separately constructed into binary vectors as SMGs and then transformed into rice via Agrobacterium. In both Indica and Japonica subspecies, our results indicated that the plant PMIs could select and produce transgenic plants in a pattern similar to that of EcPMI. The transgenic plants exhibited an accumulation of plant PMI transcripts and enhancement of the in vivo PMI activity. Furthermore, a gene of interest was successfully transformed into rice using the plant PMIs as SMGs. Thus, novel SMGs for Man selection were isolated from plants, and our analysis suggested that PMIs encoding active enzymes might be common in plants and could potentially be used as appropriate genetic elements in cisgenesis engineering.