COLLEGE PARK, Md. An
ther culture, the process by which
male sex organs in plants are
prodded to produce adult plants,
may help wheat researchers
develop new varieties of wheat
that promise increased yields and
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Wheat anther research explained
survival in a
vironments.
“If we can find out how to im
prove the frequencies of anther
culture response, it will
significantly reduce the labor
required to produce some lines of
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crop plants,” say agronomists Joy
Marburger and David Sammons.
Anthers, the male sex organ of
plants, normally produce pollen
cells that carry sperm to fertilize
the plant’s egg cells. And in normal
plant development, the end
range
Lancaster farming, Saturday, November 10,1984—015
product of this fertilization process
is seeds.
But pollen can be guided into
another developmental pathway,
using anther culture, according to
Marburger and Sammons. Im
mature anthers are removed from
the plant and cultured on a nutrient
medium in test tubes. Instead of
forming sex cells or sperm, the
pollen produced by the cultured
anthers develops into a mass of
cream colored tissue called callus.
“In some crops, like tobacco,
small plants develop from these
pollen cells,” says Marburger.
“But with wheat, the callus must
be removed from the test tube
culture and placed on another
medium to get plants to form.”
Getting the cultures to form a
callus has proven to be a difficult
first but necessary step for
researchers. Their best success to
date comes from a culture medium
consisting of sucrose, plant growth
hormones, iron and an extract
from boiled potatoes.
But not just any potatoes, ac
cording to Marburger. Although
they do not know exactly what it is
in potatoes that causes a callus to
develop, they do know that peeled
potatoes produce a 67 percent
increase in the number of anthers
with callus over potatoes with
skins.
“The potato skin apparently
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contains some retarding sub
stances,” says Marburger.
One of the best environmental
conditions for callus formation,
according to a study by Marburger
is to subject' anthers to a cold
treatment of 4 degrees Centigrade
for approximately 1 week.
“Warmer or colder tem
peratures, or shorter or longer
incubation periods provides
variable frequencies of callus
formation, depending upon the
cereal species studied,” Mar
burger says.
Chemical treatments offer some
promise of success, according to
the two scientists. Barley
researchers have tried what they
call conditioned media-growth
media inoculated with anthers
which are subsequently removed
after 7 days. New anthers are
cultured in this same media. “It
proved effective in barley, but
seems to inhibit callus formation in
wheat,” says Marburger.
“Hormone solutions applied to
plants before culture seem to have
no effect,” she adds. “It might
prove useful in future research to
determine the constituents of the
anther culture medium that induce
pollen formation in wheat. We
should then look more closely at
environmental conditions affecting
anther culture,” Marburger says.
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