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#PlantScienceClassics #15 #PlantScienceFails #1: The auxin-independent (axi) Nicotiana tabacum lines. In 1992 Richard Walden et al. (specifically co-worker Inge Czaja) published activation-tagged axi protoplasts @ScienceMagazine that could divide&grow in the absence of any auxin! 
The development of plant transformation in the early 1980s (classics #6&13) was inspirational for many scientists. Among them was Richard Walden, who teamed up with plant transformation pioneers Barbara & Thomas Hohn to leverage this advance to develop the “Agroinfection" method.
He then joined the next transformation pioneer, Jeff Schell, to develop more such tools. Their first was Activation-Tagging: 4 CaMV 35S enhancers (classic#9) were placed at the RB of the T-DNA. That way, they would overexpress the plant gene next to which the T-DNA was inserted.
