DNA delivery into plant tissues using carbon dots made from citric acid and β-alanine

Kuber Shivashakarappa¹Sureshbabu Marriboina¹Zeinab Yadegari²Vikas Reddy Paduri³Ritesh Sachan³Korsi Dumenyo¹Ali Taheri^1*

• ¹Tennessee State University, Nashville, United States
• ²Fisk University, Nashville, United States
• ³Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, United States

Correction in text in Results Section [In the published article, we identified a typographical error in the text. The article refers to "Figure 9I," but the correct reference should be "Figure 8I.]. A correction has been made to the section [Results]: "The CDs were mixed with plasmid DNA containing the GFP reporter gene and incubated at 37°C for 30 min to facilitate binding. Subsequently, the protoplasts were cultured with the CDs-plasmid DNA complex for 24 h in a dark environment at room temperature. Confocal microscopy analysis following the incubation period showed that the CDs-plasmid DNA conjugate had penetrated the protoplasts and chloroplast membranes, localizing within the chloroplasts (Figure 8G). This was confirmed by monitoring the autofluorescence of chlorophyll and the combined image of GFP expression and chlorophyll autofluorescence, which exhibited the complete colocalization of GFP and the chloroplasts (Figure 8H). Absence of transient expression of GFP fusion proteins was noticed in the isolated soybean protoplasts and chloroplasts following incubation with the solution containing plasmid DNA alone (Figure 8F). The expression of the reporter gene was quantified by measuring mean fluorescence intensity following plasmid delivery with CDs as a carrier and without a carrier. In protoplasts, the mean fluorescence intensity of GFP was 83.9 ± 5.03, whereas no GFP expression was detected in the control condition where no carrier was used (Figure 8I)."