FEASIBILITY OF ALTERNATIVE SELECTION METHODS FOR TRANSGENIC APPLE AND PEAR USING THE DETOXIFICATION GENE VR-ERE

Abstract

[...] Our preliminary experiments with apple and pear have demonstrated the following: 1) among the various substrates of VR-ERE, benzaldehyde (BD), a naturally occurring compound, is able to inhibit adventitious bud regeneration from apple as well as pear in vitro leaves, at concentrations ranging from 1 to 1.5 mM; 2) constitutive expression of Vr-ERE in transgenic 'Greensleeves' apple does not provoke any abnormal phenotype after one year of growth in greenhouse, but aldehyde reductase activity is reduced in all transgenic clones; 3) production of transgenic pear using BD instead of kanamycin as selection pressure is feasible, but the efficiency of the selection pressure seems low. In conclusion, the efficiency of Vr-ERE as a selective gene to produce apple and pear transgenic plants is not yet proven and further research is needed.