Selection of Transformed Plants

The low frequency and randomness of transgene integration into host cells, combined with the significant challenges of recovering whole plants from those rare events, makes the use of selectable marker genes routine in plant transformation experiments. For research applications that are unlikely to be grown in the field, strong herbicide- or antibiotic resistance is commonly used. Here we use genes conferring resistance to glufosinate herbicides as an example of a selectable marker in wheat transformation by either Agrobacterium or biolistics.