ANTHER-CULTURE ABILITY IN SECALE-CEREALE L

Success in anther culture of rye (Secale cereale L.) has mainly been r estricted to genotypes whose genome is partly determined by S. vavilov ii Grossh. The aim of this study was to identify true S. cereale genot ypes with anther-culture ability. The plant material used included the semi-wild standard genotype SC35, six single crosses of the 'Petkus' and 10 of the 'Carsten' gene pool, plus a double cross between SC35 an d one of the 'Carslen' single crosses. Three anther-culture experiment s were performed. Several single crosses within the 'Carsten' gene poo l produced green plants. The 'Petkus' single crosses tested did not sh ow anther-culture ability. As expected, the induction and regen- erati on rates of SC35 were higher than those of all other genotypes tested. The performance of the double cross was intermediate between its pare nts. The results demonstrate for the first time that anther culture in rye is a valuable tool in plant breeding. The data also show the poss ibility of transferring anther-culture ability from high- to low-respo nding genotypes.