Transformation of plant young proembryos by electroporation

It is first reported that plant young proembryos expressed exogenous reporter genes by electroporation. Young proembryos with 8–32 cells and globular proembryos with 250–400 cells could be isolated by enzymatic maceration combined with microdissection. After electroporation withGUS orGFP genes, the proembryos were cultured for 1–2 d in KM8p medium. At the field strength of electroporation 500–1500 V/cm, blue reaction of GUS or green fluorescence of GFP could be observed in the proembryos. The highest transient expression frequency of young proembryos (2.2%) was obtained at the field strength of 750 V/cm, whereas the highest frequency of globular proembryos (5.9%) was obtained at the field strength of 1 250 V/cm. Taking the proportion of transformed cells in the whole cells of proembryos as efficient transformation frequency, the efficient transformation frequency of the young proembryos was 7 times that of the globular proembryos.