Molecular analysis of transgenic chickpea ( Cicer arietinum) produced through Agrobacterium-mediated method

Abstract

Genetic engineering technologies are intended to adjuncts the classical breeding techniques for crop improvement. This requires a precise integration of transgene (s) into useful germplasm without inducing mutation. If plant transformation systems are precise, the transgenic plants, derived from the same parent plant material and carrying the same transgene, will be identical in phenotype except difference in the transgene expression. However, phenotypic variation is the norm within populations of transgenic lines from the same experiment [1-6] therefore, careful screening of numerous transformed plants is desired [7, 8]. Despite this, even plants originally selected as having the appropriate phenotype are often found, during later experiments or commercial use, to have unexpected and unintended traits [9, 1 OJ. The unintended phenotypes in transgenic plants could be due to the presence of transformation-induced mutations or somaclonal variation [11-13]. It is still a matter of debate whether this variability, termed somaclonal variation [14, 15] is the result of genetic differentiation that pre-existed in somatic cells or is induced by tissue culture, which may act as mutagenic treatment [16, 17].