Roots, explants and protoplasts from pea transformed with strains of Agrobacterium tumefaciens and rhizogenes

Abstract Several strains of Agrobacterium were tested for their ability to transform intact pea roots, segments and protoplasts. Wild type nopaline and octopine A. tumefaciens , mannopine and agropine A. rhizogenes and an oncogenic binary A. tumefaciens strain carrying the neomycin phosphotransferase gene were used. Whatever the bacterial strain, transformation of intact organs was achieved with high transformation frequencies. Transformation was shown to occur in every type of material, but this was not the case with all the Agrobacterium strains. Moreover, transformation rates dropped drastically when the size of the plant material was reduced.