Barley anther culture: determining the optimal pre-treatment for green plant regeneration

Doubled Haploid (DH) Technology is an important tool for plant breeding and biotechnological applications as it accelerates the breeding cycle of plants by shortening the time required to attain homozygosity.Anther culture has become one of the most frequent and well-established methods for the induction of haploid embryogenesis and regeneration in barley.Anther culture is easily reproduced and workable for a wide range of genotypes.The aim of this study was to determine the optimal pre-treatment for barley anther culture.Three pre-treatments, 0.3 M Mannitol, 0.7 M Mannitol and a cold treatment with a moist cloth (CMC), were studied.The results suggest that CMC is the optimal pre-treatment to use for green plant regeneration.Anthers treated with CMC showed a higher response percentage than that of 0.7 M Mannitol and 0.3 M Mannitol.CMC also induced a significantly higher callus formation and green plant regeneration frequencies than 0.7 M Mannitol and 0.3 M Mannitol.Further research has to be conducted to further optimize green plant yields per treatment as well as reduce the number of albinos regenerated through barley anther culture.