Transformation in Maize Using Low Voltage Electric Current

Abstract

Direct transfer of DNA into plant protoplasts or cells is one approach for transforming plants genetically. DNA uptake by protoplasts may be promoted chemically with polyethylene glycol (Lyznik et al. 1989) or electrically with a high-voltage pulse, i.e., electroporation (Fromm et al. 1986). Both of these methods depend upon a tissue culture system (Rhodes et al. 1988) to recover plants from a single transformed cell. Although fertile plants have been regenerated from barley (Jayne et al. 1991), corn (Morocz et al. 1990), rice (Kyozuka et al. 1987), and sugarcane (Srinivasan and Vasil 1986), regeneration of transformed, fertile plants has only been demonstrated recently in some cereals (e.g., rice, Zhang et al. 1988; corn, Donn et al. 1990; Gordon-Kamm et al. 1990).