The effect of potato extract used as additive in anther culture medium on culture responses in Triticum aestivum

In the present study, potato extract was used as an additive supplemented to a synthetic induction medium in anther culture of wheat (Triticum aestivum), attempting to make reasonable utilization of potato extract and improve the efficiency of this induction medium. The concentration of the potato extract in the medium was 5% (water extract from 50g of potato tubers for a litre of medium), the basic synthetic medium used was W-14 medium, but the inorganic salts (except iron) and the vitamins were reduced to three fourths of the original strength of W-14 medium. The experimental results showed that the potato-extract-supplemented W-14 medium could elicit more pollen-derived calli (or embryoids) and these calli possessed greater green shoot regeneration ability compared with both the original W-14 medium and a modified W-14 medium in which the five major inorganic salts were each reduced to three fourths strength of the original W-14 medium, and in turn the calli produced on the original W-14 medium possessed greater green shoot regeneration ability compared with the modified W-14 medium. However there were no significant differences in albino shoot differentiation frequency of the calli between the above-mentioned three media, it varied only with different genotypes of the anther-donors. This indicates that the medium components affecting green shoot regeneration would not certainly affect albino shoot regeneration as well.