High frequency production of doubled haploid plants of Brassica napus cv Topas derived from colchicine-induced microspore embryogenesis without heat shock

This report describes a very high genome doubling efficiency of Brassica napus cv. Topas plants, derived from microspores induced to undergo embryogenesis with a colchicine treatment, without the use of a heat treatment. The plants showed normal growth and development, and 90% were fertile. In contrast, only 6% of the plants derived from heat-induced embryos were fertile diploids. All cytological analysis of the progeny of fertile plants showed 2n=38 chromosomes. These results show that colchicine can simultaneously induce microspore embryogenesis and double the ploidy level to produce doubled haploid plants.