Progress in transformation and regeneration of tropical inbred maize lines in Kenya

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Date
2008Author
Mgutu, Allan Jalemba
Anami, E. S.
Hanley-Bowdoin, L.
Rasha, A. O.
Nelissen, H.
Inzé, D.
Van, L. M.
Machuka, J.
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Tropical inbred maize lines have a reputation of being difficult
to transform, mainly as a result of their inherent limitations
associated with resistance to Agrobacterium infection and their
recalcitrance to in vitro regeneration. To enhance the capacity for
public sector maize transformation, the Plant Transformation
Facility at Kenyatta University, Kenya, embarked on a program to
improve transformation of diverse tropical inbred maize lines using
Agrobacterium tumefaciens. We evaluated both N6 (Frame et al.,
Plant Physiol. 129:13-22, 2002) versus LS (Negrotto et al., Plant
Cell Rep.19:798-803, 2000) media with different hormone regimes
and optimized transformation and regeneration protocol for tropical
inbred maize lines. Using immature embryos as explants, four
Kenyan tropical inbred lines TL21, TL22, TL23 and TL18; two
Sudanese inbred lines IL1, IL2 and CIMMYT inbred lines CML 216
and CML 244 have been investigated for their tenability to
transformation and regeneration. Transformation frequencies
(callus resistant events over total explants) and efficiencies
(plantlet regenerating events over total explants) for the recovered
events were used to evaluate successful transformation