Evaluación de la tolerancia a Finale® en la germinación y regeneración in vitro de dos variedades cubanas de arroz (IACuba-17 e IACuba-19)

Selection agent used during the shoot selection has an important role on the transgenic plant generation efficiency. In this work, the tolerance to the herbicide Finale® in two Cuban rice cultivars, IACuba17 and IACuba-19 was evaluated, and determined that 10 days exposure to 5 and 10 mg.l-1 of Finale® were enough to avoid seedlings of IAC-17 and IAC-19, respectively. Cultivated calluses (0, 2, 4 and 6 days) in the absence of Finale®in the regeneration medium were used to evaluate the minimal concentration of Finale®that totally inhibits shoot regeneration. Pre-induced calluses cultured during two days and 3 mg.l-1 of Finale® in the regeneration medium was the most efficient combination to select shoots during the generation of transgenic plants resistant to the herbicide. Our shoot selection procedure reduces to 3 weeks the time to obtain shoots during the generation of transgenic rice plants. Key words: germination, mature seeds, Oryza , phosphinothricin, regeneration, selection markers