Plants of the Apocynaceae family produce a
wide range of terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs) which
have important pharmaceutical applications. Studies of the
molecular mechanisms controlling TIA biosynthesis may
eventually provide possibilities to improve product yield
by genetic modification of plants or cell cultures. However, these studies suffer from the lack of transformation/regeneration protocols for Apocynaceae plants. We
chose to study the feasibility of Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of Tabernaemontana pandacaqui, because of the availability of an efficient regeneration procedure for this member of the Apocynaceae family. A procedure to produce transgenic T. pandacaqui
plants was established, albeit with low efficiency. Transgenic expression was demonstrated of an intron-containing β-glucuronidase reporter gene and of a gene coding for
the TIA biosynthetic enzyme strictosidine synthase from
Catharanthus roseus, another Apocynaceae species.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
