Bypassing Juvenile Stage in Genetic Transformation of Citrus Plants

Abstract

Improvement of woody fruit species through genetic engineering will have limited applications unless tissue from mature plants of elite varieties can be readily transformed. Transformation and regeneration of these plants are usually restricted to juvenile tissues (Cervera et al. 1998a), which exhibit greater regenerative potential (Durzan 1990) and greater susceptibility to transformation than mature ones (Smith 1920). Regenerated plants from juvenile tissues will have juvenile characters and several years will be needed before horticultural and commercial traits of the transgenic plants could be evaluated. Development of transformation procedures that could bypass the juvenile stage would greatly reduce the time involved in improving woody fruit trees by genetic engineering.