Genetic Transformation of V. vinifera - Two Alternative Systems under Evaluation

Abstract

‘Trincadeira’ and ‘Aragonez’ are two of the most important Vitis vinifera L. cultivars used for red wine production in Portugal. Aiming to obtain a reproducible system for plant genetic transformation, the techniques of particle bombardment and transformation mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens were tested. In both systems putative transformed embryos were selected by continued proliferation on an in vitro medium containing 40 mg/L of kanamycin. One week after co-culture the embryogenic calli produced the first somatic embryos and four months later plantlets were regenerated from A. tumefaciens transformed calli. Results suggest this method as the most appropriate to transform embryogenic calli of both cultivars.