Ongoing Projects


Contract Services

  • Transformation of tobacco
  • Transformation of tomato
  • Transformation of atropa
  • Transformation of sweet potato
  • Transformation of strawberry
  • Transformation of cherry rootstock (‘Gisela 6’ & ‘Gisela 7’)
  • Transformation of sour cherry
  • Transformation of canola
  • Transformation of rice
  • Transformation of petunia
  • Transformation of blueberry
  • Transformation of dry bean
  • Transformation of switchgrass
  • Transformation of rutabaga
  • Micropropogation of blueberry
  • Molecular fingerprinting of micropropagated blueberry cultivars


Research

  • Engineering virus-resistant cherry using RNAi techniques
  • Engineering cold-tolerant blueberry plants
  • Establishing transformation systems for dry bean cultivars (With Dr. James Kelly, Dept of Crop and Soil Science)
  • Functional analysis of woody plant-derived flower genes
  • Developing transgenic apple (With Dr. Steve van Nocker, Dept of Horticulture)


Outreach

  • Participating in short courses on Agricultural Biotechnology, Environmental and Food Biosafety in the Institute of International Studies
  • Teaching a short course in Molecular Plant Breeding
  • Developing short term laboratory experiences in plant transformation and marker assisted breeding for scientists and regulators

Protocols Available on Request for Generating Transgenic Crops

  • Blueberry
  • Canola
  • Cherry
  • Celery
  • Petunia
  • Strawberry
  • Sweet potato
  • Tobacco
  • Tomato

Recent Publications

Song GQ, Walworth AE, and Hancock JF. 2012, Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of rutabaga (Brassica napus var. napobrassica) cultivar American Purple Top Yellow. In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology – Plant (Accepted)

Walworth AE, Rowland LJ, Polashock JJ, Hancock JF and Song GQ. 2012 Overexpression of a blueberry-derived CBF enhances cold tolerance in a southern highbush blueberry cultivar. DOI 10.1007/s11032-012-9718-7 (In press)

Song GQ and Hancock JF. 2012, Recent advances in blueberry transformation. International Journal of Fruit Science 12: 316-332. DOI:10.1080/15538362.2011.623083

Song GQ, Walworth AE, and Hancock JF. 2012, Stability of transgenes in blueberry. International Journal of Fruit Science 12: 333-341. DOI:10.1080/15538362.2011.619434.

Song GQ, Walworth AE, and Hancock JF. 2012, Factors influencing Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of switchgrass cultivars. Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture. 108(3): 445-453. 108 (3): 445-453. DOI 10.1007/s11240-011-0056-y

Song GQ, Hancock J.F. 2011, Vaccinium. In Kole C (Ed) Wealth of Wild Crop Relatives: Genetic, Genomic & Breeding Resource. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. p 197-222.

Song GQ, Sink K.C., Hancock J.F. 2010, Flux in morphology and GUS expression in somatic embryogenic-derived populations of transgenic celery. In Kumar A (Ed) Applications of plant biotechnology: In vitro propagation, transformations, and secondary metabolite production. p 325-335.

Liu C, Callow P, Rowland LJ, Hancock JF, Song GQ. 2010, Adventitious shoot regeneration from leaf explants of southern highbush blueberry cultivars. Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture. 103: 137-144. DOI: 10.1007/s11240-010-9766-9

Song GQ, Sink KC, Ma Y, Herlache T, Hancock JF, Loescher WH. 2010, A novel mannose-based selection system for plant transformation using celery M6PR. Plant Cell Report 29: 163-172

Song GQ, Sink K.C., Callow P.W., Baughan R., and Hancock, J.F. 2008, Evaluation of a herbicide resistant trait conferred by the bar gene driven by four distinct promoters in transgenic blueberry plants. Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 133(4): 605-611.

Loskutov AV, Song GQ, Sink KC. 2008, Evaluation of methods for celery (Apium Graveolens L.) transformation using Agrobacterium tumefaciens and the bar gene as selectable marker. In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology--Plant 44(4): 239-245.

Song GQ, Lang G., Dolgov S.V., and Sink K.C. 2008, Cherries. In: Kole C. and Hall T.C. (eds) A compendium of transgenic crop plants. Volume 4. p161-188. Wiley- Blackwell.

Hancock J.F., Song GQ, and Sink K.C. 2008, Berry Crops. In: Kole C. and Hall T.C. (eds) A compendium of transgenic crop plants. Volume 4. p93-120 Wiley- Blackwell.

Brevis P, Bassil N, Ballington JR and Hancock JF. 2008. Impact of wide hybridization in southern highbush blueberry breeding. Journal of the American Society of Horticultural Science 133(3):427-437.

Hancock JF, Lyrene P, Finn CA, Vorsa N and Lobos GA. 2008. Blueberry and cranberry. In: J.F. Hancock (ed.). Temperate Fruit Breeding: Germplasm to Genomics. Kluwer Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

Hancock, J.F, T. M. Sjulin and G.A. Lobos. 2008. Strawberry. In: J.F. Hancock (ed.) Temperate Fruit Breeding: Germplasm to Genomics. Kluwer Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

Song GQ and Yamaguchi K. 2007, Expression of a rice CAB promoter in sweetpotato plants. Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 132 (4): 551-556.

Song GQ, Roggers RA, Sink KC, Particka M and Zandstra B. 2007, Production of herbicide-resistant highbush blueberry ‘Legacy’ by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of the Bar gene. Acta Horticulturae 738: 397-408.

Song GQ and Sink KC. 2007, Transformation of cherry: Prunus cerasus L. ‘Montmorency’ and Prunus cerasus x P. canescen ‘Gisela 6’ mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens and a two-step selection system. Acta Horticulturae 738: 683-690.

Song GQ and Sink KC. 2007, Highly efficient Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of celery (Apium graveolens L.) through somatic embryogenic regeneration. Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture 88: 193-200.

Weebadde CK, Wang D, Finn CE, Lewers KS, Luby JJ, Bushakra J, Sjulin TM and Hancock JF. 2007. Mapping the genes associated with day-neutrality in strawberry. Plant Breeding 127: 94-101.

Song GQ and Sink KC. 2006, Transformation and plant regeneration of Montmorency sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) and Gisela 6 (Prunus cerasus L. x P. canescens) cherry rootstock mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Plant Cell Rep. 25 (2): 117-123.

Song GQ and Sink KC. 2006, Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) cultivars. In Agrobacterium Protocols (2th Edition)-Methods in Molecular Biology 344 (Wang K. et al. ed.), Humana, Totowa, NJ, pp 263-272.

Song GQ and Yamaguchi K. 2006, Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) using stem explants. In Agrobacterium Protocols (2th Edition)-Methods in Molecular Biology 344 (Wang K. et al. ed.), Humana, Totowa, NJ, pp 37-44.

Song GQ and Sink KC 2005, Plant regeneration and genetic transformation of Blueberry. Recent Research Developments in Genetics & Breeding. Signpost press. Vol2: 190-200.

Song GQ and Sink KC. 2005, Optimizing adventitious shoot regeneration and Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated gene transfer system for sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) cultivar Montmorency. Scientia Horticulturae 106:60-69.

Song GQ and Sink KC. 2004, Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) Plant Cell Rep. 23:475-484.

Song GQ, Honda H and Yamaguchi K. 2004, Highly efficient Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) from stem explants using a two-step kanamycin-hygromycin selection method. In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology--Plant 40:359-365.

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