INHERITANCE OF FOREIGN GENES IN TRANSGENIC BEAN (PHASEOLUS-VULGARIS L) CO-TRANSFORMED VIA PARTICLE BOMBARDMENT

Exploiting the biolistic process we have generated stable transgenic b ean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) plants with unlinked and linked foreign ge nes. Co-transformation was conducted using plasmid constructions conta ining a fusion of the gus and neo genes, which were co-introduced with the methionine-rich 2S albumin gene isolated from the Brazil nut and the antisense sequence of AC1, AC2, AC3 and BC1 genes from the bean go lden mosaic geminivirus. The results revealed a co-transformation freq uency ranging from 40% to 50% when using unlinked genes and 100% for l inked genes. The introduced foreign genes were inherited in a Mendelia n fashion in most of the transgenic bean lines. PCR and Southern blot hybridization confirmed the integration of the foreign genes in the pl ant genome.