Plantlet regeneration of sugarcane varieties and transient GUS expression in calli by electroporation

Electroporation of intact calli of six sugarcane varieties Co 1148, CoLk 8102, CoLk 8001, CoPant 84212, CoS 767 and CoJ 64 was carried out with a view to generate a transformation protocol employing embryogenic callus as target tissue in electroporation. The apical dome explants of varieties were cultured on Murashige and Skoog medium containing various growth regulators for callusing. Plantlet regeneration protocol in all the varieties was established from embroygenic callus for carrying out electroporation. Electroporation was successfully carried out using 20 mg plasmid DNA (pMOG 410) carrying GUS-int reporter gene with a single square pulse of 20 mm pulse width at electric fields of 5–12 KV/cm. After four days, transient GUS expression could be observed in intact calli of all the varieties.