| Artemisinin is a new effective antimalarial drug extracted from the medicinal plant Artemisia annua L.. There is a great interest in enhancing the production of artemisinin by means of transgenic plants. Experiments with different combinations of hormone concentration were performed to obtain higher frequency of shoot and root induction. In particular, the factors influencing A. tumefaciens-mediated transformation of A. annua were explored to optimize the transformation system, which included Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain, plant genotype, preculture period, composition of infection bacterium suspension, methods of co-cultivation, and co-cultivation period. Finally, a system of high efficiency of genetic transformation and regeneration of Artemisia annua was established. A. annua farnesyl diphosphate synthase (FPS) was overexpressed in high-yield A. annua to increase the artemisinin content. FPS activity in transgenic A. annua was 2-3 fold as compared to nontransgenic A. annua. The highest artemisinin content in transgenic A. annua was about 0.9% (DW), which was 34.4% higher than that in nontransgenic A. annua. The results demonstrate the regulatory role of FPS in artemisinin biosynthesis.
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