Patent ID: 7732662

Claim:
A method for obtaining a transplastomic plant comprising the steps of: a) introducing into a plant cell plastid a first recombinant nucleic acid construct comprising a promoter functional in a plant cell plastid, a nucleic acid sequence encoding a protein providing for tolerance to a plastid lethal compound and a transcriptional termination region functional in a plant cell plastid and a second recombinant nucleic acid construct comprising a promoter functional in a plant cell plastid, a nucleic acid sequence encoding a protein providing for tolerance to a plastid non-lethal compound and a transcriptional termination region functional in a plant cell plastid, b) placing said plant cell having said first and second nucleic acid constructs on a first culture medium comprising a plastid non-lethal compound for a period of time sufficient to permit said plant cell to replicate, c) placing said plant cell on a second culture medium comprising a plastid lethal compound for a period of time sufficient to select plant cells capable of growing in the presence of said plastid lethal compound, and d) regenerating a transplastomic plant from said plant cell.