Genetics of green plant regeneration from anther culture in cereals

Abstract

The potential uses of doubled haploids in plant breeding and genetic studies have been well documented in the past two decades (Chen, 1986; De Buyser et al., 1987; Graner et al., 1991). There are at least three doubled haploid systems. They are anther or isolated microspore culture (Charmet and Bernard, 1984; Dunwell et al., 1987; Zhou and Konzak, 1989; Ziauddin et al., 1990), ovary culture (Wang and Kuang, 1981; Castillo and Cistue, 1993), and embryo rescue following interspecific crosses, such as the Hordeum bulbosum system (Kasha and Kao, 1970) and the wheat × maize hybridization method (Amrani et al., 1993). The anther culture system has been a favorable choice by many researchers because of the availability of a large number of microspores within each anther that could potentially produce doubled haploid plants. For many plant species, anther culture is the most efficient means to obtain ample haploid plants for selecting desirable F1 combinations in plant breeding.