Effect of Orchardgrass Varieties on Callus Culture and Plant Regeneration

In order to investigate the effects of genetic variations of orchardgrass in tissue culture response, calli were induced from mature seeds of eight varieties, `Hapsung 2`, `93E`, `Amba`, `Ambassdor`, `Frode`, `Frontier`, `Potomac` and `Roughrider`, and plant regeneration frequency was compared. Significant differences were observed among the varieties in both callus induction and plant regeneration. Callus induction rate of viable seeds varied from 24.3% to 71.7%. Plant regeneration frequency ranged from 76.6% to 29.7%. `Roughrider` varieties showed higher regenerability with the frequency of 76.6%. These results can be used not only to provide additional improvements in the plant regeneration frequency from transgenic callus, but also useful for molecular breeding of orchardgrass through genetic transformation.