Pa. Marsan et al., ANALYSIS OF STABLE EVENTS OF TRANSFORMATION IN WHEAT VIA PEG-MEDIATEDDNA UPTAKE INTO PROTOPLASTS, PLANT SCI, 93(1-2), 1993, pp. 85-94
Protoplasts derived from an embryogenic suspension culture of hexaploi
d wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cv. Oderzo have been transformed via PE
G-mediated DNA uptake. The chimaeric gene utilized for transformation
was the neomycin phosphotransferase-II gene under the 35S CaMV promote
r. The frequency of transformation was between 1 and 2.25 x 10(-6) tre
ated protoplasts. Calliclones were selected on 100 mg/l kanamycin, and
their resistance analysed at the cellular and molecular level. Cultur
es originated from transformed protoclones were highly resistant to ka
namycin, neomycin and geneticin (G418); their resistance was maintaine
d at a stable condition in the absence of selective pressure. PCR anal
yses showed that the selected protoclones growing on kanamycin contain
ed the NPT-II gene and that the gene was active, as confirmed by NPT-I
I enzymatic assay. Several kanamycin-resistant protoclones were analyz
ed by Southern hybridization for the modality of gene integration. Var
ious patterns of integration of the NPT-II gene were observed; in seve
ral cases multiple insertions and rearrangements of the integrated gen
e were observed. In most cases 35S CaMV promoter and the NPT-II coding
region were linked on the same restriction fragment. Either complete
or partial chimaeric genes were inserted into the genomic DNAs, in a v
ariable number of copies and in different locations. The NPT-II activi
ty detected in the calli analyzed was always high, independently from
the copy number of the gene inserted.