“…Rapidity of analysis is the major advantage of the transient assay system, particularly when compared to the time-consuming regeneration of transgenic plants . In the case of barley, regarded until very recently as recalcitrant for stable transformation (only a few references reporting fertile transgenic plants obtained by bombardment of immature embryos : Wan & Lemaux, 1994 ;Ritala et al ., 1994), the transient transformation of protoplasts has been the method of choice for the functional analysis of gene promoters (Teen et al ., 1989 ;Salmenkallio et al ., 1990 ;Dfaz & Carbonero, 1992 ;Dfaz et al ., 1993 ;Jenes et al ., 1994) . However, transient expression data in cereal protoplasts derived from certain tissues such 203 Gene specificity is maintained in transient expression assays with protoplasts derived from different tissues of barley I. Dfaz', J .…”