Rye doubled haploids as a research and breeding tool : a practical point of view

Doubled haploid (DH) plants were produced using anther culture from out-crossing rye, including breeders' lines, cultivars and F 1 plants with DH parents, to examine the feasibility of using the DH technique for breeding and specifically for developing mapping populations. Only 10.36% of green regenerants produced via anther culture were suitable for research or breeding purposes because of low survival rate or low fertility. Spontaneously arising DH regenerants were more often fertile compared with the colchicine-treated ones. The fertility of spontaneous DHs varied from sterile to half that found in a normal rye population, which has implications for the design of a crossing scheme and subsequent anther culture. In the reciprocal crosses within one DH population, fertility was the lowest observed, probably because of self-incompatibility factors, whereas in the DH crosses with normal heterozygous cultivars fertility was the highest. Two mapping populations using DHs were established, the first for out-crossing rye it would seem. These populations will be used for mapping two important traits, the semi-dwarf growth habit and preharvest sprouting resistance in rye.