Glutamine synthetase (GS, E.C.6.3.1.2) is a key enzyme involved in the assimilation of inorganic nitrogen in higher plants and gram-negative microorganisms. GS is the targeting enzyme of a herbicide phosphinothricin (PPT) or Basta. In order to generate PPT-resistant transgenic rice via overexpression of GS, we constructed a plant expression vector p2GS harboring two different isoenzymes GS1 and GS2 cDNAs under the control of constitutive promoters of rice Act1 and maize Ubiquitin(Ubi) genes. The p2GS was introduced into rice genome by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation and confirmed by PCR and Southern blot hybridization. GS-transgene expression was first detected by Northern blot analyses. Results from Basta test indicated that GS-transgenic plants can tolerate as high as 0.3% Basta solution. In addition, our results also demonstrated that GS overexpression conferred transformed rice calli PPT resistance. Thus, GS cassette can serve as a selective marker gene instead of bar cassette for selection of PPT transformants.