Anther culture response in F1 hybrids of winter wheat [Triticum aestivum L.]

The effect of cold pretreatment of spikes on somatic embryo induction and anther culture response of 25 F₁ winter wheat hybrids was investigated. The efficiency of androgenic embryos was the highest when spikes were incubated at 4°C for 6-9 days. A total of 2242 (73.0%) green and 885 (27.0%) albino plants were obtained from 9900 cultured anthers. Anther culture response in wheat was found to be markedly affected by the genotype of donor plants. The percentage of green plants varied from 0 to 115.7%. A great majority of anther-derived regenerants were haploids (82.35%), while the remaining plants were spontanoeus diploids (13.73%) and aneuploids (3.92%).