Patent ID: 7767885

Claim:
A plant produced by somatic embryogenesis, wherein the plastids of the plant are transformed with an expression cassette for facilitating somatic embryogenesis, said expression cassette comprising, in 5′ to 3′order, a first 5′ control sequence functional in a plastid controlling the expression of a first selectable marker sequence encoding a first selectable marker protein; a second 5′ control sequence functional in a plastid controlling the expression of a second selectable marker sequence encoding a second selectable marker protein a first 3′ transcriptional termination sequence; and a first DNA flanking sequence on the 5′ end and second DNA flanking sequence on the 3′ end of said expression cassette, wherein said flanking sequences facilitate stable integration of the expression cassette with genomic plastic DNA by homologous recombination; wherein said first 5′ control sequence is constitutive; and said second 5′ control sequence is light-regulated or constitutive, resulting in said second selectable marker protein being produced in both green and non-green tissue, and under light and dark conditions; wherein said plant is homoplasmic with respect to said expression cassette; and wherein said first selectable marker protein is different from said second selectable marker protein but wherein said first selectable marker protein and said second selectable marker protein provide resistance to a plant cell to a common selection agent.