A RAPID AND EFFICIENT REGENERATION SYSTEM FOR PEA (PISUM-SATIVUM), SUITABLE FOR TRANSFORMATION

A method for plant regeneration via organogenesis in pea (Pisum sativum) using nodal thin cell layer segments has been developed. From 10 to 12 days old sterile pea seedlings, nodal explants were excised from which leaves and axillary buds were removed. Shoot regeneration was consistently obtained from liquid cultures where the explants were floated on the medium. Shoots could be harvested after two weeks and thereafter up to ten weeks and no important effect of the cultivar (Bodil, Puget, Rondo and Trille) used could be observed as far as shooting capacity was concerned. Rooting frequency of the regenerated shoots was cultivar dependent. Plantlets were obtained within 7 weeks after explant excision. Agrobacterium tumefaciens carrying a disarmed Tiplasmid and a binary vector containing the beta-glucuronidase reporter gene, were used in cocultivation experiments on pea nodal explants in order to obtain transgenic shoots.