Protocol for doubled haploid production in hexaploid triticale (x Triticosecale Wittm.) by crosses with maize

Abstract

The method of triticale doubled haploid (DH) production by crosses with maize, as described here, was successfully used to obtain DH lines of winter and spring hexaploid (2n = 6x = 42) triticale (×Triticosecale Wittm.). The method is based on the protocols described for hexaploid wheat (Suenaga, 1994; Matzk and Mahn, 1994). Modifications and technical details have been elaborated in the Department of Plant Physiology, Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow, Poland by the author and I. Marcinska (Wedzony et al.,1998a; Wedzony et al., 1998b). We have been working with this protocol since 1994, and its efficiency was compared with anther culture of triticale (Wedzony et al., 2000). The comparison shows that the effectiveness of both methods is related to the frequency of embryo induction. However, with maize crosses we were able to obtain doubled haploid triticale lines in materials recalcitrant to androgenic induction and in genotypes yielding exclusively albino plants in anther culture system. We have not found in the scientific literature any other successful protocols that use crosses with maize to produce doubled haploids in triticale. Methods to obtain DH triticale lines using anther or isolated microspore culture can be found in the other chapters of this Manual.