Abstract: This invention relates to methods for transforming cotton using isolated shoot apical tips of seedlings. The apical shoot tips of cotton seedlings are isolated and chilled at a low temperature to slow the metabolic activity of the isolated cells, and then inoculated with a transforming agent carrying a desired gene. The invention also provides a method of regenerating transformed cotton plants with a desired trait from transformed apical shoot tips.

Abstract: This application provides a method for transformation of cells of plant tissues and the regeneration of these cells and tissues into mature transgenic plants. The apical meristematic region of a plant seedling are isolated, then treated to slow the metabolic activity of the isolated tissue. The tissue is then exposed to a transforming agent such as a DNA plasmid or an Agrobacterium carrying a plasmid vector which contains a DNA encoding a gene of interest. After an appropriate incubation period, the treatment is reversed, allowing the metabolic activity of the apical meristematic tissues to return to normal. The method provides a larger population of receptive cells for exposure to the transforming agents, thereby providing higher probabilities of isolating transformed tissues which can be regenerated into transformed plants.