Agrobacterium rhizogenes -mediated Transformation of Kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) by Direct Formation of Adventitious Buds

Abstract

Agrobacterium rhizogenes -mediated transformation of kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa (A. Chev.) C. F. Liang and A. R. Ferguson) was achieved by direct formation of adventitious buds on infected petioles. Leaf explants of four cultivars (cv. 'Hayward', 'Matsua', 'Abbott', and 'Bruno') were co-cultivated with four Japanese wild strains of A. rhizogenes (ArM 123, IFO 14555, A5 and A13). ArM 123 inoculations of the cultivars 'Hayward' and 'Bruno' resulted in 30.6 % and 16.7 % of adventitious buds formation respectively. Transformation of the adventitious buds was confirmed by opine assays and Southern blotting with 7.5 kb Eco RI-fragment of T-DNA. The direct formation of transformed adventitious buds suggests a new A. rhizogenes -mediated transformation protocol instead of hairy root induction.