Norway spruce (Picea abies) genetic transformation with modified Cry3A gene of Bacillus thuringiensis

Abstract

Modified versions of the Cry3A gene of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) were transferred into Norway spruce (Picea abies). Both the biolistic approach and Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated procedure were employed for transformation of embryogenic tissue (ET) cultures. The latter method proved to be more efficient yielding 70 transgenic embryogenic tissue lines compared with 18 lines obtained by biolistics. The modified Cry3A genes were driven by a 35S promoter and the nptII screenable selection marker gene was used in all vectors. The transgenic ETs were molecularly characterized and converted into mature somatic embryos. Germinating embryos formed plantlets which were finally planted into perlite and their Cry3A gene transcription activities were demonstrated by RT-PCR.