Abstract

Mikail Akbulut*, Meral Yücel, Hüseyin Avni

The main purpose of this study was to develop a non-tissue culture based Agrobacterium mediated transformation method for chickpea. The influences of several factors were investigated on the transfer of βglucuronidase (GUS) gene into chickpea (Cicer arietinum) seedlings during the early stages of Agrobacteriummediated gene transfer, including cocultivation period in liquid induction medium (2, 8, 16 and 24 h), strains of Agrobacterium tumefaciens (C58C1, EHA105, KYRT1) containing the plasmid pTJK136, developmental stage (16 h imbibed and 40 h germinated), microwounding, vacuum infiltration (200, 400, 600 mmHg for 20 and 40 min) and genotype (5 different). The number of GUS-expressing foci was counted to evaluate the gene transfer process. The KYRT1/pTJK136 strain of A. tumefaciens was significantly more effective for transformation than the C58C1/pTJK136 and EHA105/pTJK136 strains. The highest transient GUS activity was obtained from 16 h imbibed seedlings of cv.Uzunlu wounded with a needle and co-cultivated in liquid induction medium for 24 h with the KYRT1 strain (226 GUS foci/per explant).