Patent ID: 8053637

Claim:
A method for producing stably transformed Taxus cells, comprising: (i) introducing into cells of explant tissue from a target Taxus plant to be transformed, a vector containing a selectable marker gene operably linked to a plant-compatible promoter and at least one DNA sequence operably linked to regulatory elements effective to allow expression of the sequence in plant cells, wherein the regulatory elements include a cherry 29 thaumatin-like gene (CH29) promoter contained in SEQ ID NO:12; (ii) culturing said tissue from (i) to form callus in selection medium having a threshold concentration of selective agent effective to discriminate between plant cells transformed with the vector and non-transformed cells, based on their ability to grow in the medium; (iii) selecting calli based on their growth characteristics in the selection medium; (iv) subculturing the selected calli in the presence of a selective agent whose concentration is effective to discriminate between transformed and non-transformed plant cells, based on the cells' ability to grow in medium comprising said selective agent; (v) selecting transformed calli generated in (iv); and (vi) repeating steps (iv) and (v) at least one time, until stably transformed calli are obtained.