PLASMOLYSIS OF PRECULTURED IMMATURE EMBRYOS IMPROVES AGROBACTERIUM-MEDIATED GENE-TRANSFER TO RICE (ORYZA-SATIVA L.)

Efficiency of Agrobacterium mediated gene transfer was improved in ric e by microprojectile pretreatment. Fertile transgenic plants were easi ly recovered using this protocol. Since an osmotic treatment is part o f the bombardment protocol, we studied the effect of plasmolysis alone (i.e. without any microprojectiles) on transient expression of the gu s gene transferred by Agrobacterium to precultured rice embryos. We re port here for the first time that plasmolysis alone as a single pretre atment, yielded an even higher number of cells expressing the marker g ene than the combination of microprojectile bombardment and osmotic tr eatment. This indicates that the effect of the osmoticum on gene trans fer is independent from bombardment. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.