Abstract
The present study reports the use of silver nanoparticles as a gene carrier, substituting gold microcarrier for biolistic gene delivery in Nicotiana tabacum L. Efficiency of biolistic transformation using silver nanoparticles (100 nm) was compared with that of gold microcarriers (0.6 micron) under varying helium pressure (450 psi, 650 psi, 900 psi and 1100 psi) and target distance (6 cm and 9 cm). Among the different concentrations (0.01-100 mgL-1) of silver nanoparticles tried, 10 mgL-1 produced the highest number of transient GUS expression (30) with statistical significance. Helium pressure of 650 and target distance of 9 cm, and 900 psi pressure and 6 cm distance resulted in the highest GUS expression with gold microcarriers and silver nanoparticles, respectively. Transformation efficiency was significantly higher with silver nanoparticles than gold microparticles as carriers resulting in a reduction up to 37.5-fold on the cost of consumables. Regeneration efficiencies of tissues bombarded with gold microcarriers and silver nanoparticles were 62.5% and 70.83%, respectively.