Herbicide resistant turfgrass (Agrostis palustris Huds.) by biolistic transformation

We have obtained transgenic plants from three cultivars of creeping bentgrass, a type of turfgrass used for golf greens. Two different vectors containing the bar gene, which confers resistance to the herbicide bialaphos, were used in the transformations. Transgenic plants were recovered from both plate and liquid selection of embryogenic suspension cultures on media containing 2 or 4 mg/l of bialaphos. Microprojectile bombardment of 8–14 filters in five different experiments, yielded a total of 271 plants that survived the initial spray concentration (1.5 mg/ml) of the commercial herbicide Herbiace™. Of these, 55 survived the higher spray rate (2 mg/ml). Presence of the bar gene in the bialaphos resistant plants was confirmed by PCR and Southern analysis. Transcripts corresponding to the bar gene were present in transgenic plants that showed bialaphos resistance. The 55 transgenic creeping bentgrass lines described are from the cultivars Emerald and Southshore. They are resistant to 5X the field rate of bialaphos and therefore may have commercial potential.