Performance of isolated microspore-derived doubled haploids of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Abstract

Ploidy level, genetic stability and field performance of isolated microspore-derived wheat plants were evaluated. The ploidy levels of isolated microspore-derived wheat plants from cv. Chris and reciprocal crosses of Chris × Sinton were determined by two methods, namely chromosome counts of root tip cells and flow cytometric measurement of nuclear DNA content from leaves. Both methods gave similar results with the frequencies of spontaneous chromosome doubling and completely fertile plants among microspore-derived H0 plants of wheat being about 80% and 75%, respectively, based on two H0 populations. Only 1.7% were aneuploid and 16% were haploid. Spontaneous mutation frequencies were low with 1 of 124 Chris DH plants having a recessive mutant for lemma awns while three were grass-like plants in the H0 generation. The field-measured traits of microspore-derived DH lines were similar to the check by the third generation. Ninety-two percent and 70% of Chris DH lines had 1000-kernel weights and yields similar to the check, respectively. These results indicate that microspore-derived DH lines should have good potential for applications in plant breeding, in vitro selection, plant transformation and genetic studies. Key words: Wheat, microspore, culture, haploidy, performance, stability