Growth Behaviour of Suspension Cultures of Rice and Transient Expression of Electroporated Gene in Intact Cells

Suspension cultures of Indica (Basmati 370 and Improved Sabarmati) and Japonica (Taipei 309) rice were established from Scutellum-derived callus obtained by culture of the mature seeds. The suspension cultures contain groups of small and cytoplasmically rich cells with a doubling time of 3.6–5.1 days, as measured by increase in packed cell volume. The suspension cells of indica rice var Improved Sabarmati were employed to optimize electroporation-mediated delivery of the plasmid pBI 221 having β-glucuronidase gene under the control of eukaryotic expression signals. GUS activity was determined both fluorometrically and hisotchemically. Maximum expression was obtained when cells were electroporated at 600 V cm⁻¹ with capacitance selected at 400 μF.