A Preliminary Experiment on Agrobacterium tumefaciens-Mediated Transformation of the P5CS1 GENE in Tall Fescue

Abiotic stress conditions can be imposed on plants through either poor water quality or adverse climate condition. These types of stress affect plant growth and development throughout their life cycle. Plants that are tolerant to drought are therefore valuable, and turf grasses have the potential to grow tolerant. Turf grasses provide ground cover and offer multiple benefits, from their aesthetic value which affects our daily lives to their preservation of land against erosion. The objectives of the present work were to find the ideal media for callus induction and regeneration followed by overexpressing the P5CS1 gene encoding proline for improving drought stress resistance in Festuca arundinacea Schreb. The husks of tall fescue seeds were removed and the seeds were then sliced longitudinally. The result of this treatment showed a greater callus induction efficiency in comparison with intact seeds in the culture media. In addition, an increase in regeneration efficiency was observed in media supplemented with 2,4-D along with BAP. The average of G418‒resistant calli obtained in the experiment was around 10%. The heterologous transformation of P5CS1 in F. arundinacea background was confirmed by PCR and the transient Gus assay. More than 90% of calli expressed the uida gene which can most probably convey resistance to drought stress.