<i><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;color:black;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-US; mso-bidi-language:HI" lang="EN-GB">Agrobacterium</span></i><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Mangal;color:black;mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:HI" lang="EN-GB">-mediated transformation for development of transgenic tomato with <i>ySAMdc</i> gene</span>

Abstract

Tomato is an important model plant system for transformation and expression of genes related to different characteristics. Enhancement of lycopene content in tomato fruit is one of the important aspects in improvement of commercial genotypes. In the present study, tomato genotype Arka Vikas was selected for introduction of 488 bp <i>ySAMdc </i>gene under E8 fruit promoter through transformed <i>Agrobacterium</i> <i>tumefaciens</i>. The transformation efficiency was 16.7 and 14.2% in two trials. This resulted in the production of 7 putative transgenics in T₀ generation and 4 in the T₁generation. In both the generations, the lycopene content was enhanced by 2 to 3-fold. The transgenic plants expressed slightly altered morphological and biochemical characteristics. The integration of gene was confirmed using reverse transcription-PCR after extraction of RNA.