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Materials and methods

Crossing program and embryo rescue: Karnal bunt susceptible wheat varieties UP 2338 and WM 533 were crossed with Karnal bunt tolerant varieties HD2285 and PBW343. The resultant four F1's were crossed with different maize lines (Prabhat, ViJay, Accessions; 803, 1344, 645 and 1040 used as pollinator). As soon as the primary spikes of healthy, vigorous plant emerged from the boot, the outer two florets were emasculated and the inner one was removed. The pollination was done after 3 to 5 days after emasculation. Maize pollens were collected by tapping the tassels into a petriplate. The wheat pistils were pollinated using a fine brush and then bagged.

Immediately after pollination the solution containing 50 mg/l, 2,4-D + 100 mg/l GA3 was injected about a centimeter above the upper most node through leaf sheath as suggested by Pienaar et al. (1997). Spikelets of these pollinated spikes were again flooded with the same solution after 24 hours using injection syringe and covered with another brown paper bag. The treated spikes were harvested between 13 to 16 days after pollination (Dhaliwal et al. 1995; Riera-Lizarazu and Mujeeb-Kazi 1990; Suenaga et al. 1997) and were taken to the laboratory in the abovementioned solution. The green parthenocarpic caryopses (GPCs) were removed from florets by bending them backward with a forceps. GPCs were surface sterilized and the haploid embryos from the disinfected GPCs were excised under laminar flow hood with scalpel and plated on callus induction medium i.e. MS1(MS medium + 5mg/1 2,4-D).

In vitro screening at callus level: Well developed calli of different genotypes of wheat (HD2285 as tolerant and WH157, PBW373, KH65 and WH147 as susceptible to Karnal bunt) were transferred to fungal filtrate mediated callus induction media (MS1) with 2 to 50 nil of fungal toxin and without it (control). The callus cultures were incubated at 25 + or - 1C for 20 days. The final weight of the plated calli was recorded on 21st day before their transfer to-culture filtrate free medium. On the basis of decrease in callus weight in comparison to control the, threshold level (T) was determined.

For in vitro screening, haploid calli obtained from embryo rescue, Were transferred to MS1 medium having threshold level of culture filtrate and the callus growth was recorded. The well-developed calli were cultured and subcultured on regeneration media i.e. MS3(MS Medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/l of IAA and 1.0 mg/l of BAP) to get embryoids that further developed into plantlets.

Converting haploids into doubled haploids: The haploid calli differentiated embryoids were transferred to MS1 medium having 400 mg/l colchicine for three days and again the embryogenic calli were transferred to regeneration (MS3) media to get doubled haploid plantlets. As an alternative approach for converting haploid plantlets obtained from haploid calli into doubled haploids the plantlets having two to three sprouts were taken. The roots of these plants were trimmed and washed. Colchicine solution (0.05%) was taken. in a tube and a piece of filter paper was floated. This solution was sterilized in autoclave, on which subsequently the plant was placed for 24 hours at 24C. The plants were rinsed in tap water for half an hour and then placed in a similar test tube having distilled water and a filter paper floating on it. Then, the plants were placed on filter paper and kept for three days at 4C. The shoots of the treated plants were cut back to 15 cm before transferring to the pots. Root tip analysis was conducted following acetocarmine stain procedure to determine the ploidy level.


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