T-DNA organization in tumor cultures and transgenic plants of the monocotyledon Asparagus officinalis

Abstract

Asparagus officinalis was the first monocotyledonous plant from which hormone-independent and opine-producing crown gall tissue could be isolated. We confirm by DNA hybridization that tumor lines obtained after infection of this plant by Agrobacterium strains harboring wild-type nopaline and octopine tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmids are stably transformed and contain transferred DNA (T-DNA) segments identical to the T-DNA found in dicotyledonous plants. We have also infected Asparagus with a nononcogenic T-DNA vector that carries a chimeric aminoglycoside phosphotransferase [NOS-APH(3')II] gene and selected transformed tissues on kanamycin-containing medium. The transformed status of these tissues was then confirmed by DNA hybridization. From these calli we regenerated kanamycin-resistant shoots that were subsequently rooted. Thus we report the isolation of transgenic monocotyledonous plants engineered via the Agrobacterium vector system.