BIOLISTIC TRANSFORMATION OF TOBACCO AND MAIZE SUSPENSION CELLS USING BACTERIAL-CELLS AS MICROPROJECTILES

We have used both Escherichia coli cells and Agrobacterium tumefaciens cells as microprojectiles to deliver DNA into suspension-cultured tob acco (Nicotiana tabacum L. line NT1) cells using a helium-powered biol istic device. In addition, E. coli cells were used as microprojectiles for the transformation of suspension-cultured maize (Zea mays cv. Bla ck Mexican Sweet) cells. Pretreating the bacterial cells with phenol a t a concentration of 1.0%, and combining the bacterial cells with tung sten particles increased the rates of transformation. In N. tabacum, w e obtained hundreds of transient transformants per bombardment, but we re unable to recover any stable transformants. In Z. mays we obtained thousands of transient transformants and an average of six stable tran sformants per bombardment. This difference is discussed.