Plants carrying foreign genes have been obtained for many crops including wheat, rice, maize, barley and Triticale. The most important aspect for practical breeding is the regeneration of whole plants from a specific cell possessing the desired agronomic properties. Particle bombardment provided the necessary breakthrough for the efficient transformation of cereals. Efficient regeneration is a prerequisite for all transformation techniques. The aim of the presented work was to study the progeny of transgenic plants of the allohexaploid cereal species Triticale. By combining an efficient regeneration system with the successful particle bombardment method we were able to obtain transgenic Triticale plants. Transgene expression was sometimes unstable and generally resulted in the decline of the expression, although some lines showing stable expression were also selected. In our laboratory several generations of androgenic doublehaploid transgenic lines have been regenerated and multiplicated. The integrated transgenes were detected in Triticale lines by in situ hybridisation method. The stability of trangenes has been studied on ten generations. A regeneration system from single cell to plant combined with microprojectile bombardment appeared to be the most efficient transformation method for Triticale. Numerous chimeric genes are now available for research. Some of these genes may appear useful in the future breeding of Triticale.
J. Zimny, Pracownia Kultur Tkankowych Zboz, Zaklad Biotechnologii i Cytogenetyki Roslin, Instytut Hodowli i Aklimatyzacji Roslin, Radzikow, 05-870 Blonie, Poland