Advance of Studies on Agrobacterium rhizogenes Ri Plasmid rol Genes and Their Applications for Forest Tree Genetic Improvement

Expression of rol genes from Ri plasmid leads to the excessive formation of adventitious roots at the site of infection in plant, and transformed plants can be easily regenerated from the adventitious roots. The plants transformed with Ri plasmid rol genes often generate various genetically modified characteristics which have broad prospects for the application of plant genetic improvement. Since the 80's of the last century, much progress has been made in the studies on agropine type Ri plasmid rol genes and their applications for plant genetic improvement, which involves the structure and function of Ri plasmid, the characters of rol genes, the influence of rol genes expression on plants growth and development, and the applications of rol genes for forest tree genetic improvement. In this paper, the advances in this field are reviewed and the existing problems about the application of rol genes on forest tree genetic improvement are also discussed.