Gene delivery into isolated Arabidopsis thaliana protoplasts and intact leaves using cationic, α-helical polypeptide

The application of gene delivery materials has been mainly focused on mammalian cells while rarely extended to plant engineering. Cationic polymers and lipids have been widely utilized to efficiently deliver DNA and siRNA into mammalian cells. However, their application in plant cells is limited due to the different membrane structures and the presence of plant cell walls. In this study, we developed the cationic, α-helical polypeptide that can effectively deliver DNA into both isolated Arabidopsis thaliana protoplasts and intact leaves. The PPABLG was able to condense DNA to form nanocomplexes, and they exhibited significantly improved transfection efficiencies compared with commercial transfection reagent Lipofectamine 2000 and classical cell penetrating peptides such as poly(L-lysine), HIV-TAT, arginine9, and poly(L-arginine). This study therefore widens the utilities of helical polypeptide as a unique category of gene delivery materials, and may find their promising applications toward plant gene delivery. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].