Inheritance of anther culture traits in barley

Doubled haploid (DH) plants represent valuable tools for plant breeding and genetic study. While DH plant production efficiency via anther culture has improved, genotypic effects are still considerable. The objective of this study was to investigate the inheritance of anther culture response to facilitate the application of anther culture to breeding programs. Two donor plant environment (field vs. growth chamber) were compared for anther culture performance of four barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) parents [WA10217-83 and 'Hazen' with high green plant regeneration (GPR), WA9035-84 and WA7773-83 with low GPR] and their 12 [F.sub.1] hybrids (4 X 4 complete diallel). The traits evaluated were number of embryoids, total number of plants regenerated, and number of GPR per 100 anther cultured. Genetic effects were significant while the effects of the two donor plant environments were not. There were additive and dominance effects for all three traits evaluated, and reciprocal effects for GPR. Intermediate responses generally resulted from high X low parent crosses in the [F.sub.1] for the thre traits. The performance of [F.sub.2] populations from reciprocal crosses betwee Hazen and WA9035-84, and WA9035-84 and WA7773-83, confirmed the [F.sub.1] additive and dominance effects. The reciprocal effect in [F.sub.1] from crosses between WA9035-84 and WA7773-83 for GPR per 100 anthers was probably maternal. The GPR of two selected [F.sub.3] families verified transgressive segregation observed in the [F.sub.2]. [F.sub.3] performance indicated that selection of recombinant genotypes for higher GPR ability was effective. In conclusion, specific but complex genetic effects for anther culturability were demonstrated and this information has application to barley breeding strategy.