Variations in green plant regeneration response from anthers of indica rice and their hybrids with japonica cv. Taipei 309

The green plant regeneration ability from anthers of BR-7, a high yielding indica cultivar, Binnatoa (BA), a salt tolerant indica land race and IR-43 was tested in N6, M8, He2 and R2 media. The response was calculated on the basis of number of anthers producing green plants. The number of green plants per responding anther was also recorded. The response of BR-7 and BA was poor compared to the indica cultivar IR-43 in three of the media that were tested, In Nb medium, green plant regeneration of BA and BR-7 was respectively 10-fold and 100-fold less than the japonica cultivar Taipei 309 (T-309). No anther-derived green regenerant was obtained from another salt tolerant indica land race, Rajashail (RAJ). The N6 medium was selected to test green plant regeneration frequency from anthers obtained fi om the F-1 crosses of T-309 x BR-7, T-309 x BA, T-309 x RAJ and T-309 x BR-7 AC regenerants backcrossed with BA. Our objective was to combine the salt tolerant trait of BA and the high yield of BR-7 in a single line. The intermediate crossing step with T-309 was performed to increase the green plant regenerability of the L-anthers. All F-1 progeny from the crosses with T-309 showed significantly increased callus induction compared to the indica parent although the values were lower than the midparent means. Green plant regeneration compared to their respective indica parents either increased or decreased but never approached the: level of T-309.