Improved Culture System for Microspores of Barley to Become a Target for DNA Uptake

For the winter barley cultivar ‘Igri’, a microspore isolation and regeneration procedure is described which allows the production of such vigorous micro-spore fractions that this single-cell system can be used as a target for DNA uptake. Up to 60 % of the vigorous microspores isolated from the anther, and cultured in liquid modified MS medium, formed embryoids and/or calli. Such preparations were used for trials in DNA uptake with the plasmid pBI 221. Transformation trials were performed with polyethylene glycol as the inducing agent. With this treatment, a relative increase of fluorescence could be shown under UV light indicative of transient expression of the uidA gene.