Transient expression of the enhanced green fluorescent protein (egfp) gene in Sargassum horneri

Sargassum horneri is a macroalga widespread in North Asia-Pacific region, and these years its bloom has caused huge damage to the environment and the economic in China. To make up the blank on genetic engineering research, a transient transformation system for the multicellular marine brown alga S. horneri was established in this research. The algae used in this research were collected from the Yellow Sea of China and verified as a same species S. horneri with analysis of molecular markers. The S. horneri parietal leaves were transformed with the enhanced green fluorescent gene as the reporter by micro-particle bombardment. The results show that GFP is an effective transgene reporter for S. horneri and that particle bombardment is a suitable method for transformation of S. horneri. Through selection of four different promoters for EGFP and six groups' bombardment characters, the highest transformation efficiency approximately 1.31% was got with the vector pEGFP-N1 at bombardment characters 900 spi and 6 cm distance. This research paves a way for the further research and application of S. horneri.