Effect of culture media and genotypes on anther culture: Analysis of variance (Table 2) showed that genotype and culture medium had very highly significant effects (p=0.0001) on the capacity of androgenesis.

Calli and plants were regenerated from the anther culture of durum wheat on two media tested, N₆ NB and N₆DK. The initiation of calli and plants varied significantly on the medium used (p<0.05). The N₆DK medium showed higher frequency of androgenesis in vitro, compared with N₆ NB medium (Table.1). For eight genotypes N₆ DK produced higher number of calli and plants, while on N₆ NB medium only cv. Tawa 215 produced more calli than the other. Overall, the number of calli and plants per 100 anthers was more than 1.7 times in N₆ DK as compared to N₆ NB medium.

Among sixteen genotypes tested for their androgenic ability, nine genotypes produced calli and plants on both or either of the anther culture media used (Table 1). Genotype A 9-30-1 and HI 8381 produced significantly higher number of calli (>10 per 100 anther cultured) on N₆ DK medium, whereas genotypes A 9-30-1 and Tawa 215 produced higher number of calli (>6) on N₆ NB medium as compared to other genotypes.

Genotype HI 8381 produced maximum plants (nearly 4 per 100 anthers cultured) on N₆ DK medium followed by A 9-30-1 (2.25 plants) on the same medium. On MS NB medium, A 9-30-1, JWJ 908 and HI 8381 regenerated only 1.63-1.73 plants per 100 anthers cultured. Despite producing considerable amount of calli, Tawa 215 and GW 112 could not regenerate plants on either of the culture media. Overall, for androgenic callus induction and plant regeneration from various genotypes medium N₆DK was more effective as compared to N₆ NB.
Effect of sugars and gelling agents on anther culture: The supplements in culture medium significantly affected the number of calli and plants regenerated per 100 anthers (Table 3). The number of calli and plants on medium with maltose and agarose were significantly higher than the medium with sucrose and agar. For callus formation and plant regeneration, media with maltose and sucrose produced average results for callus formation (15.5 per 100 anthers) and plant regeneration (2.6 per 100 anthers); however, it was non-significantly different with other two media.

The green plant formation was effected by the initiation medium as well as genotypes. Genotype HI 8381 produced more number of green plants as compared to A 9-30-1 on all three media tested. Maximum response was on N₆ DK medium with 90 g/l maltose and 5 g/l agarose where HI 8381 regenerated 7.2 plants and A 9-30-1 regenerated 2.9 plants per 100 anthers.
Long-term maintenance of androgenic callus cultures: In order to select appropriate culture medium for long-term maintenance of androgenic calli, the potential to produce embryogenic calli have been examined. For this experiment, only one genotype HI 8381 was tested as it produced sufficient required quantity of embryogenic calli. Among the three media tested, medium with 2 mg/l 2,4-D and 5 mg/l silver nitrate maintained embryogenic calli more significantly than other two media for a period of six months (Table 4). The sub-culturing during the first month on various media reduced the embryogenic potential considerably being minimum on medium with 2 mg/l 2,4-D and maximum on 2,4-D and silver nitrate combination. During subsequent sub-culturing, embryogenic calli either degenerated or converted into non-embryogenic friable calli. Although no callus regenerated plants after four months of culture, few calli maintained their embryogenic status up to six months.