Summary
The classical approach of gene transfer to a given plant species delivers the foreign gene to transformable cells and then puts the effort into generating plants. This approach is very difficult in many important crop plants, including cereals, and the results of regeneration are very genotype-dependent. In contrast, we use regenerable cells and try to transform them. Shoot apical meristems provide a tissue which regenerates in situ a fertile plant for most given genotypes or species. Transformation of meristem cells may lead to transgenic sectors in chimeras. These sectors may contribute to the gametes and, thus, to transgenic offspring, which then should be homohistonts and not sectorial chimeras like their parents. Our model plant for these studies is wheat. Microtargeting is a ballistic approach which is particularly suitable for the controlled delivery of microprojectiles to meristem cells in situ (Sautter et al., 1991). We summarize in this paper our experience with ballistic microtargeting of transgenes to wheat shoot apical meristem cells in situ.
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Abbreviations
- GUS:
-
β-glucuronidase
References
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Sautter, C., Leduc, N., Bilang, R. et al. Shoot apical meristems as a target for gene transfer by microballistics. Euphytica 85, 45–51 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00023929
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00023929