title: Transformation of white spruce (Picea glauca) somatic embryos by microprojectile bombardment.
abstract: Cotyledonary somatic embryos of white spruce [Picea glauca (Moench) Voss] were subjected to microprojectile bombardment with a gene construct containing a gus::nptll fusion gene. Somatic embryos were used to re-induce the embryogenic tissue after bombardments. Histochemical assay using X-gluc as a substrate showed that all the embryos (100%) were GUS positive 48 h after bombardment. However, only thirteen out of 605 embryos (2.2%) remained GUS positive after two months in culture. Three of those thirteen (23%) embryo-derived tissues consistently showed GUS activity for eight months in culture. These putatively transfomed embryogenic tissues were subjected to Southern blot analysis and the results suggested integration of the gus::nptll gene expression cassette in the white spruce genome.
authors.affiliation: Plant Biotechnology Institute, National Research Council of Canada, 110 Gymnasium Place, S7N 0W9, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
authors.forename: V R
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Bommineni
authors.forename: R N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Chibbar
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Datla
authors.forename: E W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Tsang