Towards dihaploid production in sunflower - Selection of regeneration medium

Abstract

In sunflower breeding, it takes six to eight years to obtain inbred lines that are homozygous. Dihaploid production enables production of completely homozygous material for less than a year thus accelerating breeding process. The aim of our research was to select optimal medium for induction of shoot regeneration from cultivated sunflower anthers. Anthers of 74 cultivated sunflower genotypes in BC, generation of back-crossing were surface sterilized and placed on four different, MS-medium based solid regeneration media, The appearance of organogenesis or somatic embryogenesis was observed and obtained data statistically analyzed. The experiment was set as completely randomised, with two factors. Callus, somatic embryo, shoot and root regeneration on the anthers of the tested genotypes was observed. Data were analysed by ANOVA and REML. Statistical analysis enabled us to determine optimal medium for anther culture and shoot regeneration induction,