Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol. 51, No. 343, pp. 187-196,
February 2000
© 2000 Oxford University Press
Cytodifferentiation and transformation of embryogenic callus lines derived from anther culture of wheat
Section of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, Department of Agricultural Sciences, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Thorvaldsensvej 40, Frederiksberg DK-1871, Denmark
Three types of callus tissues established from anther culture of eleven doubled haploid (DH) lines of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were evaluated for their ability in enhancing friable embryogenic (Type II) culture differentiation and genetic transformation. Differences between types of callus inocula were highly significant (P<0.001), suggesting that the quality of the initial callus explant is of profound importance in encouraging the proliferation of Type II cultures. Other factors found to be crucial included weekly subculture of friable embryogenic callus tissues on a maintenance medium containing 30 µM dicamba and a predominance of amino-acid nitrogen supplement. Transfer and integration of the ß-glucuronidase gene was also affected by the type of inoculum when suitable embryogenic cell cultures were transformed using silicon carbide whiskers and high velocity microprojectiles. Expression of the hygromycin phosphotransferase selectable marker gene sequence was confirmed in all the stably transformed cell lines maintained on selection media containing lethal levels of hygromycin. Comparatively, there were differences in the frequency of regenerable, transgenic clonal segments between whisker-treated and microprojectile bombarded tissues mainly as a result of the fact that cultures vortexed with whiskers were more capable of post-treatment cell proliferation and embryo differentiation than those bombarded with cDNA-coated microprojectiles. Conditions for obtaining these results are outlined and discussed in relation to the suitability of the two transformation strategies for producing transgenic cell aggregates of wheat.
Key words: Amino-acid nitrogen, cDNA-coated microprojectiles, silicon carbide whiskers, Type II cultures, Triticum aestivum