New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science abstracts

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Field performance of transgenic potatoes

A. J. CONNER
M. K. WILLIAMS
D. J. ABERNETHY
P. J. FLETCHER
R. A. GENET

New Zealand Institute for Crop & Food
Research Limited
Private Bag 4704
Christchurch, New Zealand

Abstract  Field performance was assessed in 13 transgenic potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) lines from three cultivars expressing a selectable marker gene conferring kanamycin resistance. All lines developed unexpected changes in the phenotypic appearance of shoots, and/or poor tuber yield generally involving a reduced number of small tubers. Each independently selected transgenic line showed distinctly different changes in phenotypic appearance or yield performance. The observed changes were very uniform within each clonally propagated transgenic line, and were consistent in appearance over two seasons in the field. These changes were attributed to either epigenetic or genetic events occurring during the tissue culture phase of transformation. Efficient systems for the rapid selection and regeneration of transformed plant cells are therefore required to minimise the frequency of tissue culture induced variation in plant performance.

Keywords  Solanum tuberosum; potato; transgenic plants; kanamycin resistance; neomycin phosphotransferase II; genetic engineering; field trial; somaclonal variation

New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science, 1994, Vol. 22: 361-371

0114-0671/94/2204-0361 $2.50/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand 1994

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (2224K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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