GENETIC TRANSFORMATION IN WHITE JUTE (Corchorus capsularis)

Abstract

Two section of experiment were conducted during the period From July 2006 to June 2007 in the Genetic Engineering Laboratoiy of Genetic Resources and Seed Division, Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI), Dhaka. In this section-A, C. capsukiris was used to investigate their in vitro regeneration potentiality and in the section-B, two vaneties of C. capsularis were used to observe their transformation ability. Cotyledons (with attached petioles) were used as explants. One of the major constraints of getting plant regeneration from the explants of C. capsularis was the production of healthy seedlings in vitro. Seeds of C. capsufaris germinated on both agar supported hormone free MS 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 phytohorntone combination, MS+ 2 mg/I HAl' 7 0.5 mg/I IAA showed the highest shoot regeneration (83.33%). l'lant regeneration was also observed in the presence of different percentages of surfaetant (Pluronic F-os) and different concentration of PeSO.1 and it was found that 0.08% surfactant and 28 mg/I FeSO4 gave highest result respectively. In the section-B, an efficient and reproducible protocol for the production of transgenie jute plant was developed by inoculating cotyledonary petioles with Agroliacicriu,n lumefaciens strain LBA4404 carrying a binary vector pBI12I, which contains selectable marker gene npuii conferring resistance to kanamycin and the GUS reporter gene. After co-cultivation and selection, histochemical GUS assay was performed in two varieties (viz. CVE3 and C\'Ll). In the transformed explants, GUS reporter gene was expressed showing blue colour in the explain tissues. Non-transformed explants did not show any colour. Among the varieties, CVE-3 showed the highest response to GUS assay (90%).