The production of transgenic sugarcane plants : SRDC final report BS44S

Abstract

Transgenic sugarcane plants, which expressed the coat protein of SCMV at a very low level, were produced by micoprojectile bombardment of sugarcane meristems. Transgenic plants expressing the luciferase (Luc) and B-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter genes were also produced. A paper describing regeneration of plantlets expressing the reporter gene GUS (Plant Cell Reports 12:343-346) was the first report of the use of sugar meristem tissues as a transformation target, and the second report of transgenic sugarcane plants. The level of expression of the coat protein gene in the regenerated plantlets was very low, possibly due to chimaerism, ie. mixtures of transformed and non-transformed cells in the same tissues. We have established that sugarcane meristems are a useful target for microprojectile transformation of sugarcane, although more research is necessary before this target can be routinely used for sugarcane genetic engineering.