STABLE TRANSFORMATION OF BARLEY TISSUE-CULTURE BY PARTICLE BOMBARDMENT

Suspension culture cells of barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv Pokko) were stably transformed with two separate plasmids containing genes coding for neomycin phosphotransferase II and beta-glucuronidase, respectivel y. Transformed cultures were selected with the antibiotic Geneticin(R) . Enzymatic activity was tested in the Geneticin(R) resistant cultures , and in 96 % of them neomycin phosphotransferase could be detected. T he non-selected marker, detected as beta-glucuronidase activity, was e xpressed in 40 % of the resistant cultures. Stable transformation was confirmed with Southern blot hybridization.