title: Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of almond leaf pieces.
abstract: A protocol for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of leaf pieces from two almond cultivars has been developed. This protocol gave a transformation percentage of 48.6 for the cultivar MN51 and 27.9 for the cultivar 'Supernova'. The Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain LBA 4404 carrying a binary vector plasmid pBinGUSint has been used. A critical step for optimal transformation was the pre-culture period of leaf pieces prior selection on medium containing kanamycin. Both cultivars showed an almost doubled transformation percentage when the selection was started at day 6 compared to day 0. The presence of neomycin phosphotransferase II and ß-glucuronidase genes carried by pBinGUSint was confirmed in transformed expiants both by Southern blotting analysis and enzyme activity assays.
authors.affiliation: Fruit Tree Research Institute, 00040 Ciampino Aeroporto, Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Archilletti
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lauri
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Damiano