This study was conducted to develop herbicide-resistance domestic maize plants by introducing the CP4 5-enol-pyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (CP4 EPSPS) gene using Agrobacterium tumefaciens- mediated immature embryo transformation. Immature embr...
This study was conducted to develop herbicide-resistance domestic maize plants by introducing the CP4 5-enol-pyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (CP4 EPSPS) gene using Agrobacterium tumefaciens- mediated immature embryo transformation. Immature embryos of five genotypes (HW1, KL103, HW3, HW4, HW7) were co-cultivated with strains Agrobacterium tumefaciens (strain C58C1) containing the binary vector (pCAMBIA2300) carrying Ubiquitin promoter-CP4 EPSPS gene and Cauliflower mosaic virus 35S (CaMV35S) promoter-nptII gene conferring resistance to paromomycin as a selective agent. The presence and expression of CP4 EPSPS transgene were confirmed by PCR, RT-PCR and Northern blot analysis, respectively. Also, the resistance to glyphosate in the transgenic maize (T1) was analyzed by shikimate accumulation assay. The frequency (%) of paromomycin-resistance callus was 0.37, 0.03, 2.20, 2.37, and 0.81% in pure lines HW1, KL103, HW3, HW4 and HW7, respectively. EPSP transgene sequences were amplified in putative transgenic plants that regenerated from paromomycin-resistance calli of two inbred lines (HW3, HW4). Of them, RT-PCR and Northern blot analyses revealed that the transgene was only expressed in two transgenic events (M266, M104) of HW4 inbred line, and a mild glyphosate resistance of transgenic event (M266) was confirmed by the lower shikimate accumulation in leaf segments. These results demonstrate that transgenic maize with herbicide-resistance traits in Korean genotype can be genetically obtained.