Premise of the study: Datura stramonium is a pharmacologically and evolutionarily important plant species in the family Solanaceae. Stable transformation methodology of this species would be advantageous for future genetic studies.
Methods: In vitro plant regeneration and Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation techniques were developed for D. stramonium based on methods reported for tomato. A binary vector containing pAtUBQ10::erGFP was used for transformation.
Results: We recovered primary transformants harboring the green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgene that resulted in expression of fluorescence in all tissues analyzed. Transformants were allowed to self-pollinate, and two of five progeny contained the GFP transgene and displayed fluorescence identical to the primary transformants.
Discussion: We have demonstrated the first stable transformation in the genus Datura. This is a key first step to study the genetic basis of traits in this evolutionarily interesting species.
Keywords: Datura; Solanaceae; green fluorescent protein (GFP); tissue culture; transformation.