In the grain legume Cicer arietinum L. (chickpea), the seed-derived embryo axes deprived of the apical meristem were able to regenerate adventitious shoots on Murashige and Skoog (1962) medium supplemented with kinetin. This protocol was suitable for Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer by the co-cultivation technique. Chickpea transgenic plants showed neomycin phosphotransferase II and ß-glucuronidase activities and the presence in their genome of integrated bacterial DNA.