An efficient method for transgene expression in hairy root cultures of Catharanthus roseus

Transgenic hairy root cultures of the medicinal plant, Catharanthus roseus, were established with green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression under the control of an estrogen-inducible system. The Agrobacterium-mediated transformation process was optimized with an overall efficiency of 33%. Furthermore, GFP expression was tightly regulated and highly inducible using the estrogen-inducible system as demonstrated in hairy roots. This paper describes the optimized transformation method using the estrogen-inducible system for engineering the production of pharmaceutically important alkaloid compounds from C. roseus hairy root cultures.