Development of Moisture Stress Tolerant Brinjal cv. Utkal Anushree (Solanum melongena L.) Using Agrobacterium Mediated Gene Transformation

Abstract

An efficient and reproducible in vitro regeneration protocol was developed with high frequency regeneration of shoot buds from shoot-tip in MS medium + BAP (2.0 mg/l) in Brinjal cv. Utkal Anushree. Rooting was obtained on MS medium+ NAA (0.01 mg/l). The Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain GV3107 containing a binary vector pCAMBIA2300 carrying rd29A::DREB1A gene has been used for transformation. The shoot-tip from in vitro grown seedling was pre-cultured for 72 hrs and co-cultivated for 24 hrs. Shoot buds were produced on the regeneration medium containing kanamycin (100 mg/l) and cefotaxime (250 mg/l). A transformation frequency of 6.40% was achieved after PCR analysis with gene specific primer. The gene expression for moisture stress tolerance was assessed through morpho-physiological and biochemical analyses.