Vigna Δ 1 -pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase (P5CS) cDNA was transferred to chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) cultivar Annigeri via Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated transformation. Following selection on hygromycin and regeneration, 60 hygromycin-resistant plants were recovered. Southern blot analysis of five fertile independent lines of T0 and T1 generation revealed single and multiple insertions of the transgene. RT-PCR and Western blot analysis of T0 and T1 progeny demonstrated that the P5CS gene is expressed and produced functional protein in chickpea. T1 transgenic lines accumulated higher amount of proline under 250 mM NaCl compared to untransformed controls. Higher accumulation of Na + was noticed in the older leaves but negligible accumulation in seeds of T1 transgenic lines as compared to the controls. Chlorophyll stability and electrolyte leakage indicated that proline overproduction helps in alleviating salt stress in transgenic chickpea plants. The T1 transgenics lines were grown to maturity and set normal viable seeds under continuous salinity stress (250 mM) without any reduction in plant yield in terms of seed mass.

Tropical maize is recalcitrant to tissue culture regeneration because of its poor response to in vitro regeneration after transformation. In this context, the present study has developed the tissue culture independent in planta transformation protocol for tropical maize by transferring plumular meristem cells of germinating seeds of tropical maize genotype through Agrobacterium tumefaciens infection. The protocol was developed by using Agrobacterium strain EHA105 containing vector pCAM-BIA3301 carrying cry1Ab, gus and bar genes. The expression of transgene gus in T 0 plants was confirmed by measuring the hydrolysis rate of the fluorescent substrate 4-methylumbelliferyl-beta-D-glucuronide (MUG) assay whereas the presence of cry1Ab gene was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction and T 0 plants were allowed to grow in glass house into whole plant until maturity and were selfed to produce seeds of T 1 generation. The presence of transgene and its segregation was studied in T 1 generation through Southern and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay confirming the presence of transgene and its expression respectively. The developed protocol is costeffective, efficient and genotype independent without involvement of any tissue culture procedure and can generate a relatively large number of transgenic plants in approximately 75-90 days.