What can hornworts teach us?

The hornworts are a small group of land plants, consisting of only 11 families and approximately 220 species. Despite their small size as a group, their phylogenetic position and unique biology are of great importance. Hornworts, together with mosses and liverworts, form the monophyletic group of bryophytes that is sister to all other land plants (Tracheophytes).

Step-by-step protocol for the isolation and transient transformation of hornwort protoplasts.

Premise: A detailed protocol for the protoplast transformation of hornwort tissue is not yet available, limiting molecular biological investigations of these plants and comparative analyses with other bryophytes, which display a gametophyte-dominant life cycle and are critical to understanding the evolution of key land plant traits.

Methods And Results: We describe a detailed protocol to isolate and transiently transform protoplasts of the model hornwort . The digestion of liquid cultures with Driselase yields a high number of viable protoplasts suitable for polyethylene glycol (PEG)-mediated transformation.