In Vitro Culture of Wheat and Rice for Understanding the Molecular Basis of Somatic Embryogenesis and for Transformation

The article gives, firstly, a brief overview of the earlier work on in vitro regeneration and transformation studies on wheat and rice. This is followed by presentation of results of our work on these crops. In our laboratory, complete plantlets have been regenerated via somatic embryogenesis with high efficiency employing explants from inflorescences, seeds and young leaf bases in two popular Indian varieties, namely, Sonalika in wheat and Basmati in rice. Trials with many other varieties show that there is a marked effect of genotype. A preliminary study with wheat to determine differences in embryogenic and non-embryogenic calli, at protein level, has revealed some interesting quantitative and qualitative changes. Furthermore, attempts to elicit better response and to retain long-term regeneration potential have proved fruitful. Conditions for protoplast isolation and culture have been worked out and experiments have also been initiated on transient expression of genes.