• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.11
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• pp.1317-1324
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• 2013

High-molecular weight glutenin subunits (HMW-GS) have been shown to play a crucial role in determining the processing properties of the wheat grain. We have produced marker-free transgenic rice plants containing a wheat Glu-1Bx7 gene encoding the HMG-GS from the Korean wheat cultivar 'Jokyeong' using the Agrobacterium-mediated co-transformation method. The Glu-1Bx7-own promoter was inserted into a binary vector for seed-specific expression of the Glu-1Bx7 gene. Two expression cassettes comprised of separate DNA fragments containing only Glu-1Bx7 and hygromycin phosphotransferase II (HPTII) resistance genes were introduced separately to the Agrobacterium tumefaciens EHA105 strain for co-infection. Each EHA105 strain harboring Glu-1Bx7 or HPTII was infected to rice calli at a 3:1 ratio of Glu-1Bx7 and HPTII, respectively. Then, among 216 hygromycin-resistant $T_0$ plants, we obtained 24 transgenic lines with both Glu-1Bx7 and HPTII genes inserted into the rice genome. We reconfirmed integration of the Glu-1Bx7 gene into the rice genome by Southern blot analysis. Transcripts and proteins of the wheat Glu-1Bx7 were stably expressed in the rice $T_1$ seeds. Finally, the marker-free plants harboring only the Glu-1Bx7 gene were successfully screened at the $T_1$ generation.