{
  "abstract": "Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression has revolutionised plant research, enabling numerous landmark discoveries across diverse areas of plant biology. Yet this powerful approach remains largely confined to solanaceous species, leaving most economically important crop families without a comparable rapid assay platform. Here, we show that an engineered Rhizobium rhizogenes strain, AS109, mediates efficient transient expression across diverse dicot species spanning multiple taxonomic families, consistently outperforming commonly used laboratory agrobacterial strains. Leveraging the broad host range of AS109, we establish a suite of functional assays in faba bean (Vicia faba), including protein localisation, RNA interference-mediated gene silencing, cell-surface elicitor recognition screens, nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat receptor (NLR) activation, and infection cell biology at the host-pathogen interface. We further demonstrate that both singleton NLRs and sensor-helper NLR pairs from Solanaceae retain effector recognition and cell death activity when transferred into faba bean, establishing a rapid platform for evaluating cross-family transferability of disease-resistance genes. AS109 thus provides an accessible and versatile chassis for functional genomics in non-model crops, bridging the widening gap between hypothesis generation and experimental validation across diverse plant species.\n\nAgrobacterium-mediated transient expression has revolutionized plant research, but is largely confined to solanaceous species. This study shows that the engineered Rhizobium rhizogenes strain AS109 allows efficient transient expression across diverse dicot crop species spanning multiple taxonomic families, including a suite of functional assays in faba bean.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom",
    "Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan",
    "Molecular and Biological Agricultural Sciences Program, Taiwan International Graduate Program, National Chung Hsing University and Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan",
    "Graduate Institute of Biotechnology, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan",
    "Crop Science Centre, Department of Plant Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom",
    "Department of Biochemistry and Metabolism, John Innes Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom",
    "The Sainsbury Laboratory, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom",
    "Biotechnology Center, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan"
  ],
  "article_type": "Methods and Resources",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 20,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Freddie King"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Juan Carlos Lopez-Agudelo"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Christopher Stephens"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "May Htet Aung"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Tarhan Ibrahim"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "Enoch Lok Him Yuen"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        6
      ],
      "name": "Ao Chen"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "Nick Eilmann"
    },
    {
      "name": "Saskia Jenkins"
    },
    {
      "name": "Cristina Vuolo"
    },
    {
      "name": "Yueh-Ning Swee"
    },
    {
      "name": "Wei-Jia Liu"
    },
    {
      "name": "Samuel Bruty"
    },
    {
      "name": "AmirAli Toghani"
    },
    {
      "name": "Chih-Horng Kuo"
    },
    {
      "name": "Erh-Min Lai"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jiorgos Kourelis"
    },
    {
      "name": "Lida Derevnina"
    },
    {
      "name": "Chih-Hang Wu"
    },
    {
      "name": "Tolga Bozkurt"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/78kntptqb1evs.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1371/journal.pbio.3004010",
  "fulltext_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3004010",
  "id": "78kntptqb1evs",
  "issns": [
    "1545-7885",
    "1544-9173"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3004010",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "1110|Plant-Microbe Interactions and Immunity"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Agriculture/Crop science/Crops"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Cell biology/Cell processes/Cell death"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Genetics/Plant genetics/Crop genetics"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Microbiology/Plant microbiology/Agrobacteria"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Organisms/Bacteria/Agrobacteria"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Organisms/Eukaryota/Plants/Legumes/Beans"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Organisms/Eukaryota/Plants/Solanum"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Plant science/Plant anatomy/Leaves"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Plant science/Plant genetics/Crop genetics"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Plant science/Plant microbiology/Agrobacteria"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Research and analysis methods/Imaging techniques/Fluorescence imaging"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7221879264",
  "pdf_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3004010&type=printable",
  "pmcid": "PMC13671559",
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-01",
  "publisher": "Public Library of Science",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/78kntptqb1evs.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:23Z",
      "native_id": "10.1371/journal.pbio.3004010",
      "source": "plos",
      "url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3004010"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:29Z",
      "native_id": "PMC:PMC13671559",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13671559"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "plos:plant science",
      "subfield": "plant-biology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "A broad-host-range Rhizobium rhizogenes strain enables transient expression across diverse crop species",
  "title_text": "A broad-host-range Rhizobium rhizogenes strain enables transient expression across diverse crop species",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:18:29Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/78kntptqb1evs",
  "venue": "PLOS Biology",
  "versions": []
}