Agrobacterium-Mediated Gene Delivery in Various Tissues and Genotypes of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Agrobacterium-medlaled wheat transformation has been attempted employing various bacterial strains, different tissues and explants, and different methods of co-cultivation. Of the various tissues/explants employed, i.e., leaf base, actively growing callus cells, mature seeds and seedlings punctured at the mesocotyl region, the mature seeds emerged as the most suited material for Agmbacterium-medlaled gene delivery. Strain A281 of A. tumefaciene was found to be most effective followed by strains A348 and GV2260. Although the GUS activity in tissues/explants co-cultivated with strain GV2260 was relatively low, it indicated an efficient splicing of the intron (inserted in the coding region of the uidA gene). Various genotypes, namely, HD2329, Arjun and CPAN1676 were also screened for susceptibility against Agrobacterium strains and NPTII activity could be demonstrated in all of them, with minor variations.