Screening South African wheat germplasm for androgenic competence

Microspore and anther cultures provide an opportunity to create haploid and doubled haploid plants within a single season, thereby reducing the time and cost of cultivar development. Microspore and anther culture has been widely used and incorporated into wheat breeding programs in many countries, but little is known about the effectiveness of these techniques on South African germplasm. By using two responsive genotypes, isolated microspore culture was shown as more effective at revealing androgenic competence, and was used to evaluate the response of four South African inbred lines and two hybrids. Inbred lines A and B were highly responsive (336 and 207 embryo-like structures [ELS] per 100 anthers, respectively), line D was slightly responsive (5.1 ELS per 100 anthers) while line C was recalcitrant. The hybrid A × C was highly responsive (274 ELS per 100 anthers), and B × D did not respond at all. Green plant regeneration in a local genotype was very low (1% for line B) compared to that of foreign genotype (17% for Pavon 76). Similarly to other wheat genotypes grown around the world, the responsiveness of the South African varieties is also very variable. Thus, more efforts are needed so that isolated microspore culture can become a general tool in breeding programs.