Biolistic Transformation of Elite Indica Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Cultivars Through Semi-Solid and Liquid Medium Selection Systems

Following microprojectile mediated delivery of a plasmid construct (pAHC-25) encoding bar (bialophos resistance) gene into five-day-old scutellar call! derived from mature embryos, the effectiveness of selection procedure for bar-gene expressing tissue was compared for two indica rice cultivars (IR-64 and Karnal Local). While IR-64 transformants could be selected through the generally used semi-solid selection medium, the same procedure was not effective in the basmati cultivar Karnal Local. In the latter case, while lower concentrations (2–4 mg l⁻¹) of the selective agent phosphinothricin (PPT) yielded only escapes, higher concentrations (6–8 mgl⁻¹) inhibited proliferation of transformed as well as untransformed sectors. For Karnal Local, a liquid medium based selection system was successfully utilized for recovering transformed sectors and, eventually, regenerants. The study demonstrates the generation of transformants of two elite indica cultivars using the environment-independent system of mature embryos from seeds.