A rapid and efficient regeneration system for pea (Pisum sativum), suitable for transformation.

A method for plant regeneration via organogenesis in pea (Pisum sativum) using nodal thin cell layer segments has been developed.From 10 to 12 days old sterile pea seedlings, nodal expiants were excised from which leaves and axillary buds were removed. Shoot regeneration was consistently obtained from liquid cultures where the expiants were floated on the medium. Shoots could be harvested after two weeks and thereafter up to ten weeks and no important effect of the cultivar (Bodil, Puget, Rondo and Trille) used could be observed as far as shooting capacity was concerned.Rooting frequency of the regenerated shoots was cultivar dependent. Plantlets were obtained within 7 weeks after expiant excision. Agrobacterium tumefaciens carrying a disarmed Tiplasmid and a binary vector containing the ß-glucuronidase reporter gene, were used in cocultivation experiments on pea nodal expiants in order to obtain transgenic shoots.