International Journal of Biotechnology & Biochemistry

Selectable markers of bacterial origin such as the neomycin phosphotransferase type II gene, which can confer kanamycin resistance to transgenic plants, represent an invaluable tool for plant engineering. However, since all currently used antibiotic-resistance genes are of bacterial origin, there have been concerns about horizontal gene transfer from transgenic plants back to bacteria, which may result in antibiotic resistance. Here we have confirmed that Atwbc19 gene, the gene that encodes an Arabidopsis thaliana ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporter, confers antibiotic resistance to transgenic plants. In this present study Muskmelon has been used for transformation studies because of its good tissue culture response (Gowda, et al., 1999). As ABC transporters are endogenous to plants, the use of Atwbc19 as a selectable marker in transgenic plants may provide a practical alternative to current bacterial marker genes in terms of the risk for horizontal transfer of resistance genes.