The genetic aspect in anther culture of Lithuanian potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cultivars

Abstract

The anther culture method was used for the production of doubled haploids (DH) in Lithuanian potato cultivars. Two types of donor material, (i) tubers produced from sectoring and (ii) minitubers produced from tissue culture were applied to determine the androgenic potential according to the regenerant yield and other morphogenetic factors. ‘Nida’ was found to be superior by the rate of responding anthers (17.4%).The highest rate of embryoid formation was identified for the ‘Aista’ potašo cultivars (111.2 embryoids per 100 responding anthers). The regeneration potential of Lithuanian potato cultivars by direct microspore embryogenesis in anther culture was evaluated in this experiment. Regenerants were obtained in three cultivars (‘Goda’, ‘Nida’ and ‘Aista’) out of the five studied. In the ‘Aista’ cultivar, up to 40.3 regenerants per 100 responding anthers developed from embryos. Keywords: potato, anther culture, responding anthers, embryoids, regenerants