IN VITRO SEED FORMATION AND SOMACLONAL VARIATION IN HEXAPLOID TRITICALE

Glumes collected from 10 day old boots of hexaploid triticale strain DTS 330 callused with a frequency of 35% on LS medium supplemented with 2 mg/l 2,4-D. Plantlets were successfully regenerated (15.3%) on LS medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/l KN + 0.1 mg/l NAA. Thirty seven regenerated plantlets gave in vitro spikes on LS medium supplemented with 0.05 mg/l KN + 0.01 mg/l IAA + 3% sucrose and a total of 42 in vitro seed were obtained. In SC 2 generation, 23 plants were raised from in vitro seed. Of these plants, two were of compact spike type and one was of branched spike. Segregation data in SC3 generation showed that compact spike character is under the influence of single dominant gene. In SC3 generation, somaclones significantly differed from control for majority of the quantitative traits.