Regeneration of transgenic rice plants using high salt for selection without the need for antibiotics or herbicides

For plant transformation, a selectable marker gene is generally required for proliferation of cells that harbor the input gene, while inhibiting the growth of non-transformed cells. The most commonly used selection systems for rice involve the use of an antibiotic or an herbicide. We report here a novel selection system for rice based on the use of 200 mM NaCl for selection and regeneration at the cell culture stage. Plasmids containing cDNA encoding salt tolerance genes OsDREB2A and AtSOS1 were prepared. Both plasmids support high transformation efficiencies under high-salt conditions. This salt selection system can be conveniently used to rapidly generate salt-tolerant transgenic plants free of genes that confer antibiotic or herbicide resistance.