Preliminary transformation of Saccharum officinarum L. with Bt gene

Abstract

Borer is one of the major pests of sugarcane that can cause a loss of crop yield. Spraying pesticides for the control of  borer faces obstacles because the pest lives inside sugarcane stem and sugarcanes with sharp leaves are planted at high density in fields. Transformation of two sugarcane varieties, VN 84 4137 and Suphabury 7, with synthetic Bt genes, cry1Ab and hybrid cry1B-cry1Ab, aims to provide effective resistance against pests, mainly borer. Two strains of Agrobacterium tumefaciens were transformed with plasmids containing cry1Ab gene or cry1B-cry1Ab gene for plant transformation. Sugarcanes were investigated in vitro conditions of cultivation, which indicated that the highest calli formation from the young leaf rolls was obtained on the medium with 3 mg/l 2,4-D for VN84 4137 at 93.33%  and 2 mg/l 2,4-D for Suphanbury 7 at 96.67%. The highest number of calli forming shoots was achieved on the medium with the combination of 2 mg/l BAP and 1 mg/l NAA at 100% for two varieties. Preliminary Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of sugarcane was obtained with calli expressing GUS and/or resistant to phosphinothricin at 3 mg/l, which was the lethal threshold for wild-type callus and in vitro young plants.