Studies of the Genetic Relationship between Anther Culture and Somatic Tissue Culture Abilities in Wheat

A population of thirty-eight doubled haploid lines, developed from the F₁ between two wheat parents differing in anther culture and somatic tissue culture responses, ‘was used to examine the genetical control of responses to these in vitro systems. During anther culture genetic variation between lines was exhibited for frequencies of callus induction., embryo production and embryo regeneration rates. In addition the relative frequencies of green and albino plants was shown to be genotype dependent. However, there was no correlation, between the frequencies of embryo production and the regeneration rate of those embryos suggesting an independent genetic control of these two components. Transgressive segregation for performance was observed for all components indicating that at least two genes are involved in the response of each, and lines for improved performance, combining high ernoryo production rates and good regeneration capacity were identified. No genetic variation for frequencies of callus induction from immature embryos was observed in this cross. However, genetic variation for the regeneration frequencies of plants was observed. Lines with an improved tissue culture response over the two parents were identified. There was no correlation between the performance of lines in anther culture and somatic tissue culture, indicating separate genetical control, and lines with alternative levels of response to the two systems were identified.