Regeneration of fertile wheat (Triticum aestivum) plants from isolated zygotes using wheat microspore culture as nurse cells

Abstract

A new method for growing isolated wheat zygotes by co-cultivation with microspores isolated from the same species has been developed. Although the mortality of isolated zygotes within 6 h after the transfer into the nurse culture was relatively high (70%) in this method, the majority of the structures which survived developed into fertile plants (61%). Zygotic structures grown in these cultures were morphologically not as regular as embryos grown in planta, but they resembled them closely in cytological properties and developmental pattern.