Table 1 - Wheat biotechnology: A minireview

Table 1. Selectable marker genes used in wheat transformation.

Gene	Selective agent	Mode of Action	Reference
pat, bar	Phosphinothricin, bialaphos	Inhibits glutamine synthase	Vasil et al. 1992 Vasil et al. 1993 Weeks et al. 1993
nptII	Kanamycin, G418, paromomycin	Binds 30S ribosomal subunit, inhibits translation	Nehra et al. 1994 Cheng et al. 1997 Witrzens et al. 1998
hpt	Hygromycin	Binds 30S ribosomal subunit, inhibits translation	Ortiz et al. 1996
EPSPS oxidoreductase	Glyphosate	Inhibits aromatic acid biosynthesis (EPSPS)	Zhou et al. 1995
Glyphosate oxidoreductase (GOX)	Glyphosate	Degradation of glyphosate into aminomethyl phosphonic acid	Zhou et al. 1995
Mannose-6-phosphate Isomerase	Mannose	Ability to grow on mannose as a sole carbon source	Hansen and Wright, 1999
Cyanamide hydratase (Cah)	Cyanamide	Ability to grow on cyanamide containing media, converts cyanamide into urea	Weeks, 2000