Introducing bar gene into Festuca arundinacea ev. Houndog 5 via pollen-tube pathway

Frequent uses of herbicides in turfgrass management causes not only phytotoxicity to turfgrass but also environmental pollution. Genetic transformation of herbicide resistance gene into turfgrasses could prevent herbicide injury to non-target plants such as tall fescue. In this studu, Bar gene was transformed into two well performed selections of Festuca arundinacea cv. Houndog 5 via pollen-tube pathway method. Eighteen plants were alive after screening the Basta (4-(hydroxyl (methyl)phosphinoyl)-DL-homoalanine) resistant from 1286 plants; six plants (i.e., 572-1, 572-4,578-1, 578-3, 578-5 and 578-9) among eighteen plants have the DNA fragment with the same size as positive control via PCR detection. The transformation rate was 0.47%. The results suggest that the pollen tube pathway method could be feasibly used in the gene transformation for tall fescue.