Transformation of plants by electroporation of cultured explants

A method of producing a transgenic plant comprising the steps of:

• a. culturing an intact explant of a plant in nutritive medium;
• b. electroporating the explant with a pulse length of from about 50 to about 500 milliseconds to produce a transformed explant, wherein the transgene is stably integrated into a chromosome of a cell of the transformed explant;
• and
• c. regenerating the transgenic plant from said transformed explant.

A method of producing a transgenic plant lacking a marker gene, comprising the steps of:

• a. culturing intact plant tissue;
• b. transforming the plant tissue with a transgene and a stimulatory gene, wherein the trait gene and the stimulatory gene are on separate nucleic acid molecules, to produce transformed plant tissue, wherein the transgene is stably integrated into a chromosome of a cell of the transformed plant tissue, and wherein the stimulatory gene is present in at least one cell of the plant tissue;
• c. regenerating transgenic plants from said transformed plant tissue;
• and
• d. selecting transgenic plants which lack the stimulatory gene.