ANTHER CULTURE OF IRANIAN WHEAT GERMPLASM USING DIFFERENT MEDIA

An experiment was conducted to study the androgenic response of five wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars and to identify an appropriate medium for doubled-haploid production for the Iranian wheat breeding programs. Four induction media including modified C17 (MC17), B5, N6 and MS media were used in this study. The overall response involved two independent phenomena of embryo induction and plant regeneration. An Iranian cultivar, ʹFalatʹ, carrying the 1BL/1RS translocation was particularly responsive in MC 17 medium. Results of analysis of variance for percentage of anthers responding (percentage of embryoid induction) showed that there were highly significant differences both among wheat cultivars and among the tested media. The cultivar X medium interaction was only significant for plant regeneration. However, a positive and significant correlation was obtained for percentage embryoid induction and percentage green plant regeneration. Chromosome counting of meristemic cells in root tips of regenerated green plants indicated that 17 percent of the regenerants were spontaneous doubled haploids.