Premise of the study

Datura stramonium is a pharmacologically and evolutionarily important plant species in the family Solanaceae. Stable transformation methodology of this species would be advantageous for future genetic studies.

Methods

In vitro plant regeneration and Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation techniques were developed for D. stramonium based on methods reported for tomato. A binary vector containing pAtUBQ10::erGFP was used for transformation.

Results

We recovered primary transformants harboring the green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgene that resulted in expression of fluorescence in all tissues analyzed. Transformants were allowed to self-pollinate, and two of five progeny contained the GFP transgene and displayed fluorescence identical to the primary transformants.

Discussion

We have demonstrated the first stable transformation in the genus Datura. This is a key first step to study the genetic basis of traits in this evolutionarily interesting species.