TRANSFORMATION OF ALFALFA (MEDICAGO-SATIVA L) PLANTS WITH GUS MARKER CONTAINING INTRON

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L. cv Regen SY) plants were regenerated from roots induced by inoculation of leaf discs with Agrobacterium rhizogen es containing the vector p35S GUS INT. The DNA transformed to the plan t genome with T-DNA based vector contained genes which encoded neomyci n phosphotransferase (NPT II), that confers resistance to kanamycin an d intron containing beta-D glucuronidase (GUS) gene. Histochemical sta ining for all the tested kanamycin resistant plants exhibited GUS acti vity and some differences in the phenotypic characters were also noted in the transformed and untransformed plants.