Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of Anacardium occidentale L. (cashew) using GFP marker system

Anacardium occidentale L. (cashew) is an important tropical nut crop valued for its kernels and shell oil. The varieties grown at present are low yielding. The amount of raw nuts produced by these is not enough to meet the demand for kernels and shell oil on the world market. The yield is lowered further by the attack of several insects of which the tea mosquito is the most devastating. To control the insect infection large scale spraying of cashew plantations is done aerially. This has resulted in health hazards to people surrounding the plantations. Methods to introduce insect resistance in cashew trees by transformation would not only help in increasing the yield but also in reducing the pesticide load on the environment. Transformation of cashew was carried out using Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain EHA-105 with plasmid pBIN m-gfp5-ER. nptll (kanamycin resistance) was used for the selection. Successful transformation was confirmed with PCR amplification of transformed in vitro cashew plants using GFP specific primers. The fluorescent glowing of the leaves of the in vitro grown cashew plants at 365 nm confirmed the expression of the gene in transformed plants.