Morphogenetic and chemical stability of long-term maintained Agrobacterium -mediated transgenic Catharanthus roseus plants

Plants were studied at regular intervals for various parameters such as plant height, leaf size, multiplication rate, alkaloid profile and presence of marker genes. DT plant gradually lost the GUS gene expression and it was not detected in the fifth year while NT plant demonstrated the presence of genes rol A , rol B and rol C even in the fifth year, indicating the more stable nature of Ri transgene.

Vindoline content in the DT was two times more than in non-transformed control plants. Alkaloid and tryptophan profiles were almost constant during the 5 years. The cluster analysis revealed that the DT plant is more close to the control Nirmal plant followed by NT plant.