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ARS Home » Midwest Area » St. Paul, Minnesota » Plant Science Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #92237
Title: GENETICALLY ENGINEERING ELITE OAT CULTIVARS

Author
item TORBERT, KIMBERLY - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
item Rines, Howard
item KAEPPLER, HEIDI - UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
item MENON, GEORGE - UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
item SOMERS, DAVID - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

Submitted to: Crop Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/28/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: When modern techniques of genetic engineering are used to introduce new genes into crop plants, often only certain genetic lines or varieties work in the process. In many cases the variety that can be readily engineered to add the new gene is not the best for other desired traits such as disease resistance or seed quality. A lengthy series of conventional genetic crosses and selection may then be needed to transfer the introduce gene into more overall desirable or "elite" varieties. In developing the initial genetic engineering system for the cereal oat, we had used an oat line selected for its high ability to respond to genetic engineering techniques; but this experimental line was not a very productive disease resistant type. By bringing together a series of recent technique advances, we succeeded in engineering a gene into plants of the variety Belle. This elite variety is currently one of the most widely grown oat varieties in the upper Midwest. Other elite oat varieties were tested and appear to respond to the modified technique. The use of elite lines as recipients in gene introductions will require much less plant breeding effort and time to produce oat varieties improved by genetic engineering.

Technical Abstract: Previous work has shown that tissue cultures initiated from mature embryos of a specific oat (Avena sativa L.) genotype can be genetically engineered and fertile plants regenerated. The objectives of this study were to investigate the initiation of tissue cultures from mature embryos of an additional 16 elite North American spring oat cultivars and to determine whether these tissue cultures can be used to produce transgenic plants. Fifteen of the genotypes tested produced at least some embryogenic callus that was similar in appearance to transformable callus. The elite cultivar 'Belle' was tested to determine whether it could be genetically engineered. From 30 microprojectile bombardment experiments, 17 independently genetically engineered tissue cultures were produced that regenerated fertile, transgenic plants. These results indicate that mature embryo- derived tissue cultures will be useful for genetically engineering elite oat cultivars.