Transformation of potato via Agrobacterium coated microparticle bombardment

The transformation of potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Desiree) was extended by the Agrobacterium-mediated biolistic method. Using this approach transgenic shoots could be obtained at a similar frequency to that achieved through conventional biolistics. Leaves from shoot cultures were bombarded with gold particles coated in Agrobacterium tumefaciens cells harboring a binary plasmid encoding three genes of interest in the T-DNA. Nine shoots were obtained from 20 shots, with selection of transgenic shoots on a series of media containing progressively increasing concentrations of hygromycin from 5 to 20 mg dm-3.