regeneration and agrobacterium-mediated transformation of three economically important strawberry cultivars kurdistan, camarosa and paros

genetic transformation studies were carried out to standardize a protocol for agrobacterium -mediated genetic transformation of three economically important strawberry (fragaria x ananassa duch) cultivars kurdistan’, camarosa’, and ‘paros’. shoot regeneration frequency 72, 65 and 30% was obtained on ms (1) basal medium supplemented with 2% glucose and 4 mg/l tdz for camarosa, kurdistan and paros, respectively. to optimize the concentration of kanamycin for these cultivars, we observed the responses of leaf explants to different concentration of kanamycin (0-100 mg/l) in the media. our results showed that 75 mg/l was an effective concentration of kanamycin. for genetic transformation, agrobacterium tumefaciens strain c58c1rifr (pgv2260) harbouring the binary vector ptjk136 containing uida gene with intron along with kanamycin resistance gene (npt-ii) was used. after five days pre-incubation and 72 h co-cultivation, transformed cells (explants) were able to grow on the selective regeneration medium containing 75 mg/l kanamycin and 500 mg/l cefotaxime, while, control explants failed to grow. the regenerated putative transgenic shoots were analyzed by histochemical gus assay and pcr analysis. transformation efficiency based on inoculated explants number was 2, 1 and 3% for ‘, camarosa’, ‘paros ’, and ‘kurdistan’, respectively. the standardized protocol would be useful for agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation of these cultivars with important agronomic genes.