A cauliflower mosaic virus promoter directs expression of kanamycin resistance in morphogenic transformed plant cells.

The promoter region of the CaMV inclusion body protein gene was modified for use in chimeric gene fusions. The modified promoter was used to construct a selectable marker for plant transformation based on the Tn 5 kanamycin resistance gene. This chimeric selectable marker was introduced into plant cells using oncogenic and deoncogenized strains of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Both types of transformation produced kanamycin-resistant cell lines. The resistant cell lines derived from the deoncogenized strains were used to regenerate shoots. A second type of selection based on the ability of octopine synthase to detoxify aminoethyl cysteine was also used to select transformants in both oncogenic and nononcogenic transformation.