Hairy root induction and plant regeneration of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Rehmannia glutinosa</Emphasis> Libosch. f. <Emphasis Type="Italic">hueichingensis</Emphasis> Hsiao via <Emphasis Type="Italic">Agrobacterium rhizogenes</Emphasis>-mediated transformation

The objective of this research was to establish an efficient system of genetic transformation and plant regeneration from hairy roots by infecting the leaf sections and stem segments of in vitro Rehmannia glutinosa Libosch. f. hueichingensis Hsiao plantlets. Hairy roots were induced from them after co-culturing with Agrobacterium rhizogenes strain 15834 at a frequency of 32 and 29.4%, respectively. The calluses were induced from hairy roots on half-strength Murashige and Skoog medium containing 0.2 mg/l kinetin and 3.0 mg/l benzyladenine at a frequency of 100%, from which transgenic shoots and plantlets were developed. Transgenic plantlets did not have differences in morphology except the shortened internodes and an increase in adventitious root formation compared to wild-type plants. PCR and Southern-blot analyses confirmed that rolB gene of TL-DNA was inserted in the genome of transformed hairy roots and plantlets. RT-PCR analysis and opine paper electrophoresis revealed that rolB gene was expressed in the transformed hairy roots and plantlets. Conclusively, transgenic hairy roots and transgenic plants of Rehmannia glutinosa Libosch. f. hueichingensis Hsiao were developed for the first time. This text was submitted by the authors in English. Published in Russian in Fiziologiya Rastenii, 2009, Vol. 56, No. 2, pp. 247–255.