Screening of Transgenic Wheat Plants Resistant to Herbicide

Screening and identification of transgenic plants are the key factors for successful transformation.To decrease the escape plants in wheat transformation experiments,the detection of ammonium ion released from the leaves of T0 transgenic plants and spraying Basta herbicide on T1 transgenic plants were studied to establish a simple and efficient way to screen transgenic wheat plants with bar gene.The results showed the concentrations of ammonium ion from transgenic plants had significant correlations of r=0.86 at two-leaf stage,and r=0.75 at five-leaf stage with the result from PCR analysis.Thirty-four transgenic plants were obtained by ammonium assay from 391 T0 plants regenerated on selection medium,among which 27 transgenic plants were confirmed by PCR analysis for bar gene.Thirteen transgenic T0 lines obtained by spraying 100 mg/L Basta herbicide on the progenies derived from 381 T0 plants were all validated by PCR analysis.The result indicated that the two methods can be used to screen transgenic wheat plants when the bar gene is used as the selectable marker.