Effect of ‘Chloroxynil’ on Agrobacterium-mediated transformation efficiency of Lilium cv ‘Manissa’

As a powerful technique, gene transformation can produce new lily cultivars with specific characteristics such as new flower colors and resistance to pathogens. However, it is difficult to use this technique in monocot plants like lilies. A new phenolic compound called ‘chloroxynil’ has been introduced to replace ‘acetosyringone’ and is considered to improve transformation efficiency of Lilium . Our results showed that the addition of chloroxynil into the inoculation and co-cultivation media significantly improved the transformation efficiency. At 4 μM, chloroxynil-mediated callus regeneration increased 7 days after it was transferred to the regeneration medium. Transformation efficiency was 6.6 % at 100 μM acetosyringone, while 11.1 % at 4 μM CX. Finally, 11 kanamycin-resistant plants were successfully produced at 4 μM CX, and gene transformation in the plantlets was validated by PCR and RT-PCR techniques.