Transgenic sugar beet tolerant to imidazolinone obtained by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation.

Sugar beet is highly sensitive to imidazolinone herbicides thus rotational restrictions exist. In order to develop imidazolinone tolerant sugar beets als gene from Arabidopsis thaliana encoding acetolactate synthase with S653N mutation was used for genetic transformation. Transgenic sugar beet plants were obtained by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of aseptic seedlings using vacuum-infiltration. The efficiency of genetic transformation was 5.8%. RT-PCR analysis of obtained plants revealed accumulation of specific als transcript. The resistance to imidazolinone was proved for developed transgenic sugar beet plants in vitro and in greenhouse conditions after spraying with imazethapyr (Pursuit, BASF).