Prospects of artificial seeds from microspore-derived embryos of cereals

Abstract

Haploid plant breeding is now well established as a tool for crop improvement (Wenzel and Foroughi-Wehr, 1984). Several anther culture (AC)-derived lines have been released in the breeding programs of major cereals (Wenzel and Foroughi-Wehr, 1984; Brar and Khush, 1994) including rice (Alejar et al., 1994). The success of haploid breeding depends on the efficiency of microspore embryogenesis and embryo maturation to plants. Artificial seeds, consisting of culture-derived embryos encased in a protective coating can be used for the economical mass production of elite plant cultivars (Fuji et al., 1987; Redenbaugh, 1993). For dicots, several studies have been reported which support this consideration (Kitto and Janick, 1985; Redenbaugh et al., 1986; Fuji et al., 1987; Nonaille and Petiard, 1988; Bapat and Rao, 1988; Zhong and Wang, 1989; Rao and Singh, 1991; Mukunthakumar and Mathur, 1992). Only one report so far has demonstrated artificial seed formation from microspore-derived embryos in cereal, barley (Datta and Potrykus, 1989) and there was a short report in wheat (Datta et al., 1990).KeywordsSomatic EmbryoSomatic EmbryogenesisSodium AlginateAnther CultureCalcium AlginateThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.