eng Oriental Scientific Publishing Company Biosciences Biotechnology Research Asia 0973-1245 2019-06-25 16 2 343 350 10.13005/bbra/2750 33830 article Muhammad Sabir 1 Yasir Anwar 2 Akram Khan 1 Muhammad Ali 1 Peerzada Yasir Yousuf 3 Khalid Al-Ghamdi 2 Institute of Biotechnology and genetic Engineering, Faculty of Crop production science, KPK Agriculture University, Peshawar Pakistan. Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Molecular Ecology Laboratory, Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Jamia Hamdard, Hamdard Nagar New Delhi-110062, India. Potato (Solanum tuberosum), one of the indispensable food crops, is susceptible to various fungal phyto-pathogenic infections that result in considerable production losses both in terms of quality and quantity. Developing fungal-resistant cultivars by introducing pathogen-resistant genes through transgenic approach has been a powerful tool to provide defense against the fungal pathogens. The current study was undertaken to develop a fungal resistant trait in a local potato variety. To achieve this goal, a local Pakistani Potato variety (Diamant), was transformed with chitinase ChiC gene utilizing plasmid pEKB/ChiC using Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain EHA101. The infected explants were grown on MS medium supplemented with 2 mg/l BAP and 0.2 mg/l NAA. Explants were then sub-cultured on MS medium supplemented with 2mg/l BAP and 2mg/l GA3 for shooting. PCR examination confirmed the integration of ChiC gene in the potato genomic DNA. The transformed potato variety could also be used as fungus-resistant breeding material and offers new opportunities to develop improved potato cultivars for different agronomic and other desirable traits. https://www.biotech-asia.org/vol16no2/chic-gene-enhances-fungal-resistance-in-indigenous-potato-variety-diamant-via-agrobacterium-mediated-transformation/ ChiC; Chitinase; Diamant Potato; Transformation; Transgenic Plants