Pine (Pinus radiata)

This chapter describes the transformation of Pinus radiata using organogenic cotyledon explants rather than the more common somatic embryogenesis methods for conifers. The advantages of our method are the year round availability of seed and that over 80% of genotypes can be easily regenerated from the mature cotyledon explants. The transformation efficiency (i.e., the number of transformed shoots regenerated from excised cotyledons) is 1.7% and, as with other Agrobacterium tumefaciens transformation methods, the majority of transgene integrations are single copy. Critical factors for success are survival of the cotyledons, Agrobacterium strain, and selection pressure after cocultivation.