Morphological and RAPD analysis of poplar trees of anther culture origin

Our objectives were to improve the rate of haploid plant regeneration through increasing the rate of callus initiation on the anthers and sustaining shoot regeneration frequency, and to analyze the field population of anther culture origin by morphological and molecular methods. Regarding the callus initiation, the most responsive clones were 'N-90' (59%) in P. nigra and 'D-29' (75%) in P. deltoides. The rate of shoot regeneration and number of shoots/calli ranged from 4%-79% and 1-9, respectively. From the 208 rooted plants 8 haploid, 179 diploid, 4 tetraploid and 17 aneuploid plants were found. In the field population, the haploid plants could be easily identified by their retarded development and morphological characteristics (size and shape of the leaves, strong branching, etc). Several diploid plants showed depressed developmental and morphological traits similar to the haploid ones. Three traits (growth rate, leaf blade length and shape of leaf base) of the 6 different morphological characteristics measured were in correlation with the ploidy level within the poplar field population. Six primers of the 48 primers tested were able to detect polymorphism among the field plants.