Comparison between Corchorus olitorius and Corchorus capsularis at GUS histochemical assay performance for tissue culture independent transformation.

Tissue culture independent transformation technique in crops is relatively new and of popular interest due to its faster approach and efficiency. The prospect of this technique in the production of transgenic Jute plants with new genetic properties is promising. In the present study, two varieties of each of Corchorus olitorius (var. O-72 and var. OM-1) and C. capsularis (var. CVL-1 and var. BJC- 83) were used to observe their transformation ability. Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain LBA4404 was used for transformation, which harbors a binary vector pBI121 containing selectable marker gene nptII, gus (β-glucuronidase) reporter gene and a stress tolerance gene GLY-1. The young shoot tip of the seedlings (20-22 cm) was infected with the bacterial culture. The young leaves were collected after 20-21 days of bacterial culture transformation and thereafter histochemical GUS assay was performed. In the putatively transformed regions of the plants, gus reporter gene was expressed showing blue color in the tissues. Non-transformed plants did not show any color. Among the varieties, the percentage of matured plants showing GUS activity was higher in C. olitorious var. O-72 (80.66%) and OM-1 (73.33%) compared to C. capsularis var. BJC-83 (32.50%) and CVL-1 (40.00%). The result of the study provides an indication that efficiency of transformation by using tissue culture independent direct genetic transformation for the two species of Jute may differ significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]