GENETIC TRANSFORMATION IN WHITE JUTE ( Corchorus capsularis)

Abstract

Two ection of experiment were conducted during the period from July 2006 to June _007 ir1 the Genetic Engineering Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Seed Division, Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI), Dhaka. In this section-A, C. capsularis was used to investigate their i11 i1i11·0 regeneration potentiality and in the scction-B, two varieties of . capsularis were used to observe their transformation ability. Cotyledons with attached petioles) were used as explants. 011e of the major constraints of getting plant regeneration from the explants of . capsularis was the production of healthy seedlings i11 \1i11·(;. Seeds of C. G·aJJ.5·11/a1·is· germinated on both agar supported hormone free Tv1S medium and cotton supported hormone free liquid MS medium .. The percentage of seeds germinated on cotton-supported medium was found to be much higher than seeds germinated on agar-supported medium. In the section-A, seed germination percentage was found to be the highest in CVE-3 in cotton-supported medium (88.89%) than agar-supported medium (77.77%). Among the phytohorrnone combination, M + 2 mg/I BAI' -,- 0.5 mg/l IAA showed the highest shoot regeneration (83.33%). PJant regeneration was also observed in the presence of different percentages of surfactant (Pluronic 11'-68) and different concentration of FeS04 and it was found that 0.08% • surfactant and 28 rng/l FeSO.i gave highest result respectivel 1• In the section-B, an efficient and reproducible protocol for the production of transgenic jute plant was developed by i noculating cotylcdonary petioles with Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain [_BA4404 carrying a binary vector pBJ J 21, which contains selectable marker g 11e IJJJtll conferring resistance to kanamycin and the GUS reporter gene .. \fter co-cultivation and selection, histochemical GU assay was performed in two varieties (viz. C\'E3 and CVLJ ). In the transformed explants, GUS reporter gene was expressed showing blue colour i11 the explant tissues. Non-transformed explants did not show ail)' olour. mong tile varieties, CVE .. 3 showed the highest response to GUS assay 90%).