Genetic analysis of tissue culture traits in barley cv. 'Lenins'

The barley cultivar ‘Lenins’ was found to be a genotype showing high shoot regeneration ability in cultures derived from immature embryos. Five cultivars different from ‘Lenins’ in shoot regeneration ability were reciprocally crossed with ‘Lenins’ and the inheritance of tissue culture traits was investigated. F₂ plants showed continuous distributions in callus growth and percentage of shoot regeneration, suggesting that these traits were controlled by polygenes. The F₂ population, derived from a cross between ‘Lenins’ and ‘6721′, showed a monogenic segregation for the number of regenerated shoots, and the segregation ratio fitted 1:2:1. Tissue culture traits of ‘Lenins’ were controlled by several genes, whereas the number of regenerated shoots related to the efficiency of shoot regeneration is controlled by one major gene.