Air investigation of some alternative methods to agrobacterium and protoplast transformation for introducing exogenous genes into plants, based on the use of pollen as a vector

Some of the problems involved in the search for alternative plant transformation vectors have been examined. In particular the use of pregerminated pollen as a direct transformation vector has been investigated. It has been shown that the protocols of Hess et al (1985) and De Vet et al (1985) are not easy to repeat with the levels of success claimed by the authors, and that these methods are unlikely to find general applicability to plant transformation in unmodified form. It has not been shown conclusively that these methods do not work, although the true levels of transformation may be considerably lower than those claimed. Some of the basic information required for application of the methods of de la Pefia et al (1987) to Petunia has been elucidated.