Optimized Agrobacterium-Mediated Genetic Transformation in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Cultivar Swetha (ICCV-2)

Optimized Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation system has been reported here for development of transgenic chickpea. Cotyledonary nodal explants of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) cultivar Swetha (ICCV-2) were used for production of transgenics via multiple shoots from four-day old seedlings. A disarmed Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain C-58 harbouring a binary plasmid pCAMBIA-1301 (containing genes for b-glucuronidase (GUS) and hygromycin phospho transferase (hpt) was used as gene construct for transformation. The co-cultivated 12 day old cotyledonary node explants were subjected to the stringent selection pressure onhygromycin for 4 weeks. The transformation was confirmed by the histochemical assay for GUS activity. Molecular analysis through Polymerase Chain Reaction confirmed the stable integration of transgene in T0 plants. The present report with high efficient transformation frequency can be used to transfer genes of agronomic importance into elite cultivars of chickpea.