Abstract:Genetic manipulation of wheat (Triticum aestivum L. ) by biotechnological approaches is currently limited by a lack of efficient and reliable transformation method. The authors report a reproducible protocol for rapid production of transgenic wheat via microprojectile bombardment. The experiment was carried out by using the immature embryo excised from caryopsis 14 to 18 days postanthesis and the plant expression plasmid carrying a CaMV 35S-controlled bxn gene, for resistance to herbicide bromoxynil and a selectahle marker gene NPT I. After bombarding the precultured immature embryos isolated from 13 wheat varieties with plasmid DNA-coated tungsten particle, these embryos were transferred on MS medium containing 10 mg/L geneticin G418 sulphate to select and regenerate transformants step by step. As a result, 16 transformed plants were obtained from a total of 849 bombarded embryos. The characterization of these plants by inoculation with herbicide bromoxynil and Southern analysis with bxn gene as a probe showed that 4 of the self-fertile transformed plants contained the target gene and presented herbicide resistance. In several independent transformation experiments, the fastest one took only 6 months from embryo excision to characterization of regenerated plants. Therefore, this procedure is a rapid and efficient technique for delivering foreign DNA into wheat.