Insect pests are the major constraints of grain legumes production and storage. Improvement through
conventional breeding strategies has been limited by the lack of resistance traits within the gene pool
for most of the economically important pests. This gap can be closed by transgenic approaches using
resistance genes from different sources. In this study, we report the development of insect resistant transgenic peas expressing a plant codon optimized cry 1 Ac gene from Bacillus thuringiensis . The transgenic nat-ure of regeneratedin vitro plants and their segregating progenies has been confirmed through molecular
analyses (PCR, Southern blot, RT-PCR and immunostrip assay). The introduced transgene was inherited
up to the T4 generation. Insect bioassay using larvae of tobacco budworm indicated total larval mortality
and significantly reduced feeding damage on the developed transgenic pea plants as compared to 85% larval survival and heavy feeding damage on non-transgenic control plants. The developed transgenic lines
can be used for further studies such as gene stacking and field trials