NUCLEAR AND CYTOPLASMIC CONTROL OF ANTHER CULTURE RESPONSE IN WHEAT .3. COMMON WHEAT CROSSES

Anther culture represents a potentially important technology for production of wheat doubled haploids for plant breeding and genetics research, however, the yields of haploids from culture must be increased to achieve competitive efficiencies for the method. Genetic differences for culturability are now well known, but the relative roles of nuclear and cytoplasmic genetic factors are still unclear. The purpose of this study was to determine the significance of cytoplasm genetic variation for anther culture responses among common T. aestivum wheats. Plants were grown in a greenhouse and potato-4 and 190-2 media were used as callus induction and plant regeneration media, respectively. Large genotype differences in anther culture response were observed. Among the 18 pairs of reciprocal crosses studied, 9 showed reciprocal differences for green plant regeneration, 4 showed significant differences for callus induction, and 3 were different for plant regeneration. The occurrence of reciprocal differences for all components of anther culture response, especially for green plant regeneration, indicates that the cytoplasm of microspores or maternally inherited factors interact with nuclear genes to control the response of wheat genotypes to anther culture. The results provide substantial new supporting evidence that nuclear, cytoplasm, and nuclear X cytoplasm genetic interactions control the responses of common wheats to anther culture.