Anther and isolated microspore culture response of wheat lines from northwestern and eastern Europe

Hexaploid wheat genotypes from north-western Europe show low responses to current anther culture techniques. This phenomenon was investigated on 145 north-western European wheat lines. Twenty-seven lines from eastern Europe were included to observe the response pattern of wheat from an area, where the technique has been used successfully. On average, eastern European wheat lines produced 3.6 green plants per 100 anthers, while only 0.4 green plants per 100 anthers were obtained in north-western European lines. This difference was due to the high capacity for embryo formation among the eastern European lines, while the ability to regenerate green plants was widespread in both germplasm groups. Isolated wheat microspore culture performed on 85 of these wheat lines gave an average 3.7-fold increase in green plants per anther compared with the anther culture response. The increased recovery of green plants was due to improved plant regeneration and increased green plant percentage from embryos derived from isolated microspore culture.