Somaclonal Variation in Tissue Culture of Triticum aestivum×Agropyron desertorum F1 Hybrid

Callus induced from immature inflorescences of the partially self-fertile hybrids (2 n = 35; ABDPP) between Triticum aestivum (2n = 42; AABBDD) and Agropyron desertorum (2n = 28; PPPP) led to the regeneration of 88 plants on MS medium supplemented with 2 mg/l of 2,4-D. These regenerants were used to investigate somaclonal variation and to obtain more selfed derivatives. Immature inflorescences at the stage of developing floral primordia gave the best response in terms of callus induction and plant regeneration. The regenerants exhibited great variability for most morphological traits. Although the regenerants did not exhibit variation in chromosome number, they did show a higher degree of meiotic instability than the initial hybrid. In particular, the regenerants gave much higher selfed seed-set (5.49 %) than the donor hybrid (0.46 %), so that a total of 484 selfed seeds were obtained.