Effects of ABA during the pretreatment of barley anthers on androgenesis of Hordeum vulgare L. cultivars Igri and Digger

Abstract

For induction of barley doubled haploids via androgenesis, at least three requirements are necessary. First, the developmental stage of the microspores should be at the verge of mitosis (Hoekstra et al. 1992). Second, the right pretreatment of the anthers is needed in order to switch the gametophytic pathway into a sporophytic development of the microspores. And third, the right hormone in the culture medium of microspores which are isolated from pretreated anthers, is necessary for induction of plant production. The pretreatment for barley can be a cold treatment of spikes (Huang and Sunderland 1982), or anthers can be pretreated on a mannitol solution (Robert-Oehlschlager and Dunwell 1990). The latter pretreatment enhances doubled-haploid production in barley; the microspore viability is increased and a higher efficiency of plant production is achieved (Hoekstra et al. 1994). Knowledge about the biological processes involved in the effects of pretreatment might help in the design of a genotype independent protocol for androgenesis.