A reproducible system has been developed for the
production of transgenic plants in indica rice using
Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer. Three-week-old scutella
calli served as an excellent starting material. These were infected
with an Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain EHAI01 carrying a
plasmid piG 121Hm containing genes for Wglucuronidase (GUS)
and hygromycin resistnace (HygR). Hygromyein (50 mg/I ) was
used as a selectable agent. Inclusion of acetosyringone (50,uM) in
the Agrobacterium suspension and co-culture media proved to
be indispensable for successful transformation. Transformation
efficiency of Basmati 370 was 22% which was as high as
reported in japonica rice and dicots. A large number of
morphologically normal, fertile transgenic plants were obtained.
Integration of foreign genes into the genome of transgenic plants
was confirmed by Southern blot analysis. GUS and HygR genes
were inherited and expressed in RI progeny. Mendelian
segregation was observed in some RI progeny.