Vitis vinifera L. (Grapevine) Transformation

Thompson Seedless is our established reference genotype, with a routinely validated pipeline from embryogenic culture through T0 delivery. Other V. vinifera cultivars — including wine grapes such as Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah — are admitted through a structured feasibility assessment that evaluates embryogenic response, selection sensitivity, and regeneration capacity before full-scale work begins. We deliberately avoid guaranteeing outcomes for cultivars we have not tested internally; where a cultivar proves recalcitrant, we report this early and propose alternatives, including closely related responsive genotypes as pilot backgrounds.

The timeline is driven by regeneration biology rather than DNA delivery. Establishing competent embryogenic callus, applying stepwise antibiotic selection, and maturing somatic embryos into germinable, plantlet-forming stages are intrinsically slow processes in a woody perennial. Competing platforms quote comparable durations — roughly ten months is typical across the field. We publish stage-level timelines so you can plan publications, funding milestones, and downstream experiments realistically, and we flag cultivars or construct types that historically extend the schedule.

Every candidate plantlet is screened by PCR and target-site sequencing, with amplicons cloned or deep-sequenced as needed to resolve allele composition. Events are classified as monoallelic, biallelic, or homozygous, and heterogeneous or chimeric patterns are explicitly flagged in the report rather than averaged away. Upstream, early-stage selection is used to enrich uniformly transformed cell lines before somatic embryos are induced, which reduces — though cannot always eliminate — chimerism. Only plants with interpretable, well-documented genotypes are advanced to delivery.

Two routes exist. The first is segregation: edited T0 plants are grown to flowering, and progeny or clonal derivatives that retain only the mutation — not the CRISPR cassette — are identified molecularly; this is slow in grapevine given its juvenility. The second is DNA-free delivery, in which RNP or transient editor systems are introduced into protoplasts and regenerated plants never integrate foreign DNA. Availability of the DNA-free route depends on cultivar regeneration competence and is assessed during feasibility review. We recommend the route case by case and never present transgene-free delivery as guaranteed.

Customers may submit constructed plasmids (80–100 ng/μL, ≥10 μL, free of degradation and contamination), Agrobacterium cultures as glycerol stocks up to one year old or as plates activated within one week, or starting plant material such as dormant cuttings of a specified cultivar. Plasmids, E. coli, and Agrobacterium must be cryopreserved and shipped on dry ice to protect viability. Strains, vectors, and receptor materials used in a project are stored free of charge for six months, and can be retrieved at any time.

Our standard marker set covers kanamycin, hygromycin, phosphinothricin, and G418, selected according to each cultivar's natural tolerance. On the delivery side, we maintain GV3101, AGL-1, EHA101, EHA105, and C58C1, choosing the strain best matched to the cultivar and construct. Custom markers and less common strains can be accommodated after discussion with our project team.

Yes. Our pipeline addresses V. vinifera cultivars across table, raisin, and wine categories, and we evaluate rootstocks and American Vitis species case by case. Because cultivar behavior differs substantially, all non-standard materials pass through the feasibility assessment described above, which protects both the timeline and your budget before a full project is committed.