Cereal Research Communications, cilt.31, sa.1-2, ss.9-16, 2003 (SCI-Expanded)
An efficient and reproducible Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated system for wheat transformation was developed and genetically transformed wheat plants were produced using precultured immature embryos as the explant. The embryos were inoculated with a disarmed A. tumefaciens strain C58C1 carrying a binary vector pPTN115 coding for the β-glucuronidase gene (GUS), and a selectable marker, the neomycin phosphotransferase II gene (NPT II). A. tumefaciens cell density (OD660 = 0.6) for inoculation was found to be crucial. Two hours of inoculation period and co-cultivation for 48 h was favorable for the regeneration of transgenic plants. The transformation efficiency was comparable to that obtained by microprojectile bombardment method used routinely for wheat transformation. Stable integration, expression and inheritance of transgenes were demonstrated by molecular and genetic analysis of transformants. Both marker genes, gus and nptII, were expressed and co-segregated in the T1 progeny plants. In the majority of cases, the genes showed Mendelian segregation predicted for transgene insertion at a single locus.