Phleomycin resistance gene as a reliable selection marker for Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of the citrus postharvest pathogen Penicillium digitatum

In this study, we report for the first time that the phleomycin resistance gene can be employed as a selectable marker for genetic transformation of P. digitatum using A. tumefaciens. Our work shows that the transformation efficiency with the phleomycin resistance marker could achieve over 1000 transformants for 106 spores.