Characterization and Screening of True Transgenics Using Selection Markers

Abstract

In 2025, the world population crossed 8 billion. To serve a huge population, food demand is increasing day by day; however, food security is a matter of concern using traditional agriculture. To fulfil the world’s food demand, genetically modified (GM) crops have been involved in a broad area around the world. To raise a productive transgenic, a well-functioning plan is necessary, starting from construct designing to transgenic screening. There are various suitable selectable and scorable markers available to screen the transgenic from the non-transgenic. Antibiotic-resistant genes, such as neomycin phosphotransferase II (nptII), hygromycin phosphotransferase (hpt), bialaphos resistance (Bar), tetracycline repressor (TetR), beta-lactamase (bla), and phosphinothricin acetyl transferase (pat), are important antibiotics that are used as a selectable marker during the screening process of transgenic. In addition, various selectable markers (luciferase/GUS staining/fluorescent proteins (GFP, YFP, RFP)) are essential for identification in the plant system. In addition, a metabolic selectable marker is essential, allowing only transformed cells to grow by complementing a missing metabolic function. The appropriate marker for transgenic screening is essential to transgenic analysis. Thus, transgenic screening is a key step in genetic engineering or gene editing.