Inheritance of Anther Culture Traits in Barley

Abstract

Doubled haploid (DH) plants represent valuable tools for plant breeding and genetic study. While DH plant production efficiency via anther culture has improved, genotypic effects are still considerable. The objective of this study was to investigate the inheritance of anther culture response to facilitate the application of anther culture to breeding programs. Two donor plant environments (field vs. growth chamber) were compared for anther culture performance of four barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) parents [WA10217‐83 and ‘Hazen’ with high green plant regeneration (GPR), WA9035‐84 and WA7773‐83 with low GPR] and their 12 F1 hybrids ( 4 × 4 complete diallel). The traits evaluated were number of embryoids, total number of plants regenerated, and number of GPR per 100 anthers cultured. Genetic effects were significant while the effects of the two donor plant environments were not. There were additive and dominance effects for all three traits evaluated, and reciprocal effects for GPR. Intermediate responses generally resulted from high × low parent crosses in the F1 for the three traits. The performance of F2 populations from reciprocal crosses between Hazen and WA9035‐84, and WA9035‐84 and WA7773‐83, confirmed the F1 additive and dominance effects. The reciprocal effect in F1 from crosses between WA9035‐84 and WA7773‐83 for GPR per 100 anthers was probably maternal. The GPR of two selected F3 families verified transgressive segregation observed in the F2. F3 performance indicated that selection of recombinant genotypes for higher GPR ability was effective. In conclusion, specific but complex genetic effects for anther culturability were demonstrated and this information has application to barley breeding strategy.