Regeneration of anther-derived plants from pentaploid hybrids of Festuca arundinacea x Lolium multiflorum

Anther culture was used to generate progeny from pentaploid F1 hybrids of F estuca arundinacea (2n = 6x = 42) with Lolium multiflorum (2n = 4x = 28). O f 6360 anthers cultured, 676 green and 3460 albino plantlets were regenerat ed. Large differences in the anther culture response were observed among th e Fl hybrids with the regeneration efficiency ranging from 0 to 28.8 green plants per 100 anthers cultured. All regenerants were less vigorous than th e Fl hybrids and considerable morphological variation was present in such c haracters as plant height, leaf length and width, and the type and length o f inflorescences. Among 295 plants which flowered during the first growing season only 38 were male fertile with pollen stainability ranging from 7.7% to 84.7%. Chromosome numbers in 170 analyzed regenerants ranged from 14 to 42 and fell into three groups: 14 to 21, 28, and 30 to 42. The experiment demonstrated that generation of large populations of androgenic progeny was feasible.