Simple and versatile selection of Arabidopsis transformants

The selection of large amounts of seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana obtained after in planta transformation under sterile conditions and in tissue culture is relatively labour-intensive, time-consuming and expensive. We describe here an alternative selection procedure that uses regular greenhouse conditions and functions with a wide variety of selective agents. The selection system is based on the inert growth substrate Grodan and was intensively tested for the selection of transgenic Arabidopsis seeds with kanamycin, hygromycin, BASTA, sulfadiazine and methotrexate. However, the system has the capacity to be applicable for more selective agents and to a wider range of plant species. For Arabidopsis, the effectiveness of selective agents is comparable to or better than that obtained with tissue culture procedures.