Agrobacterium-mediated high frequency transformation of an elite indica rice variety Pusa Basmati 1 and transmission of the transgenes to R2 progeny

Among rice, indica varieties are considered recalcitrant to tissue culture and genetic manipulation. We report here Aglobactertim-mediated transformat ion of an economically important, elite indica variety Pusa Basmati 1. A la rge number of morphologically normal and fertile transgenic plants have bee n obtained. Molecular and genetic analysis of transgenic plants reveals the integration, expression and inheritance of transgenes in the progeny of th ese plants. Twenty seven percent plants contain single copy gene insertion and copy number of transgenes has been found to vary from 1-4 in transgenic plants. Mendelian as well as non-Mendelian inheritance patterns of the int roduced genes have been obtained in the R1 progeny. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scien ce Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.