• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.39-44
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• 2001

Plastid transformation was attempted with soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] leaves and photoautotrophic and embryogenic cultures by particle bombardment using the transforming vector pZVII that carries the coding sequences for both subunits of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Rubisco and a spectinomycin resistance gene (aadA). Spectinomycin resistant calli were selected from the bombarded leaves but the transgene was not present, indicating that the resistance was due to mutations. The Chlamydomonas rbcL and rbcS genes were shown to be site-specifically integrated into the plastid genome of the embryogenic cells with a very low transformation efficiency. None of the transformed embryogenic lines survived the plant regeneration process so no whole plants were recovered. This result does indicate that it should be possible to insert genes into the plastid genome of the important crop soybean if the overall methods are improved.