African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 3 (11), pp. 572-575, November 2004
ISSN 1684–5315 © 2004 Academic Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Studies on improved  agrobacterium - mediated transformation in two indica rice (Oryza Sativa L.)

Vinod Saharan¹, Ram C. Yadav², Neelam R. Yadav², Khushi Ram³

¹The Institutes for Applied Research, Ben-Gurion University, P.O.B. 653, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel.

²Department of Biotechnology and Molecular Biology, CCS HAU, Hisar 125004 (Haryana), India.

³Rice Research Station, Kaul, (Haryana), India.

*Corresponding author. E-Mail: saharan@bgumail.bgu.ac.il. Tel: 972-8-6461902, Fax: 972-8-6472984.

Accepted 9 September, 2004

Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain EHA 105 carrying binary vector pCAMBIA 1301 was used for transformation in two economically important highly recalcitrant indica rice cultivars HKR-46 and HKR-126. High concentrations of acetosyringone in the agrobacterium culture and co-cultivation medium proved to be indispensable for successful transformation. Embryogenic scutellar calli were used for transformation studies. Binary vector pCAMBIA 1301 have been proved efficient for transformation. The percent transient GUS expression found to be higher in cutivar HKR-126 (44.4%) as compared to HKR-46 (28.9%). The percent recovery of hygromycin resistant calli after 4-6 weeks on selection medium was maximum in HKR-126 (52.6%).

Key words: Agrobacterium, indica rice, transformation, acetosyringone.