Agrobacterium-mediated Gene Transfer in Citrus reticulata Blanco

Abstract

Agrobacterium-mediated in vitro transformation has been applied to a growing number of plant species and used as a new technique to improve their yields and qualities (Fraley et.al. 1986). However, up to now we have not seen any detailed reports about this in citrus fruit trees. In our experiment, leaf disc method developed by Horsch et al. has been simplified and extended for use with explants of leaves, stems and cotyledons of “Hongju” tangerine, to study the possibilities and stabilities of transformation and expression of T-DNA in citrus cells and to provide a new way for citrus improvement by using with genetic engineering.