Rs. Sadasivaiah et al., Production of wheat haploids using anther culture and wheat x maize hybridization techniques, CEREAL RES, 27(1-2), 1999, pp. 33-40
Ten spring wheat breeding lines derived from diverse crosses differed signi
ficantly in their response to anther culture and wheat x maize hybridizatio
n techniques for the production of haploids. Depending on the genotype, the
frequency of embryo induction from cultured anthers ranged from 0.1 to 55.
6 per 100 anthers with a mean of 16.3. Plant regeneration from cultured emb
ryos also varied with the genotype. Although the embryos from one line fail
ed to regenerate, those from the nine other lines produced both green and a
lbino plantlets. The frequency of green plants produced per 100 cultured an
thers ranged from 0 to 4.73 with a mean of 1.64. Depending on the genotype,
25 to 75% of the anther-derived green plants showed spontaneous chromosome
doubling. The wheat x maize hybridization technique was highly effective i
n producing haploids in all ten breeding lines, although the frequency vari
ed with genotype. The percentage of seed set ranged from 52.7 to 71.6 with
a mean of 62.5, but only 19.3% of the seeds contained embryos. About 75% of
the cultured embryos developed into green plants. The number of green plan
ts produced per 100 pollinated florets ranged from 2.40 to 12.66 with a mea
n of 6.29, all having the haploid chromosome number of 21. The line recalci
trant to anther culture produced the highest number of haploids with the wh
eat x maize hybridization method. There was no evidence of albinism or spon
taneous chromosome doubling. The reduced genotype specificity, absence of a
lbinism and ease of application, makes the wheat x maize hybridization tech
nique more efficient than anther culture for the production of haploids in
common wheat.