Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott).

Genetic engineering of taro is an effective method to improve taro quality and the resistance to various diseases of taro. Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of taro is more efficient than the particle bombardment transformation method based on current research. The development of a regeneration system starting from taro shoot tip explants could produce dasheen mosaic virus (DsMV)-free plantlets. Highly regenerative calluses could be developed from DsMV-free, in vitro plantlets on the Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with 2 mg/L BA and 1 mg/L NAA (M5 medium). The Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation method is reported in this chapter. The highly regenerative calluses were selected and cocultivated with the Agrobacterium strain EHA105 harboring the binary vector PBI121 with either a rice chitinase gene chi11 or a wheat oxalate oxidase gene gf2.8. After cocultivation for 3-4 days, these calluses were transferred to selection medium (M5 medium) containing 50 mg/L Geneticin G418 and grown for 3 months in the dark. Transgenic shoot lines could be induced and selected on the MS medium containing 4 mg/L BA (M15 medium) and 50 mg/L Geneticin G418 for 3 months further in the light. Molecular analyses are used to confirm the stable transformation and expression of the disease resistance gene chi11 or gf2.8. Pathologic bioassays could be used to demonstrate whether the transgenic plants had increased disease resistance to taro pathogens Sclerotium rolfsii or Phytophthora colocasiae.