G. Kovacs et al., Regeneration of fertile doubled haploid plants from colhicine-supplementedmedium in maize (Zea mays L.) anther culture, NOVENYTERME, 48(1), 1999, pp. 13-23
Genome doubling is critical for obtaining fertile doubled haploid plants fr
om maize anther culture. The most common chromosome doubling method applies
colchicine to the plants. However, the conventional treatment has several
disadvantages. In this experiment, anther cultures of one maize FI hybrid w
ere treated with 0.02% and 0.03% colchicine for three days at the beginning
of microspore induction. Colchicine added to the induction medium had no n
egative effect on the androgenic response of the genotype examined. The spo
ntaneous doubling rate of the hybrid was very low, underlying the need for
an efficient genome doubling system. Significantly higher fertility was obs
erved in plants originating from the colchicine-supplemented induction medi
um. In conclusion, the results obtained clearly demonstrate that the applic
ation of colchicine prior to the first microspore mitosis was superior to t
he conventionally used chromosome doubling techniques.