ANDROGENESIS OF THE SALT-TOLERANT SHRUB ATRIPLEX GLAUCA

Clusters of flowers, 4 to 5 days old, were successfully cultured on Ni tsch and Nitsch (1969) medium in the presence of growth regulators. An average of 20 plants per explant were produced after 6 weeks. Organiz ed growth was obtained only from flowers collected during spring or ea rly summer. Microscopic observations during shoot regeneration indicat ed that shoot organogenesis took place directly from microspores to gi ve rise to shrubby plants. Their subsequent transfer onto fresh medium in the presence of a different set of growth regulators resulted in t he production of ''haploid'' and ''diploid'' lines in the proportion o f 50:50. The presumed haploid plants were successfully rooted on Woody Plant Medium (Lloyd and McCown 1980) within a week. The significance of androgenic lines for the study of salt tolerance and the genetic im provement of Atriplex forage quality is discussed.