July 2011

Source: ISB News Report July 2011

Doubled Haploid Bread Wheat Engineered for Drought Tolerance
Paramjit Khurana and Harsh Chauhan

Wheat is one of the most important food crops in the world. Only a few accessions of the donor wheat species contributed to the evolution of common wheat, thereby excluding the larger genetic diversity of its parental species. Plant breeding using the doubled-haploid (DH) system is used to speed up the breeding process. In addition to its role in plant breeding, chromosome doubling may also be used in genetic transformation studies, and DHs are prime targets for transformation and genetic manipulation. Anther culture is useful for the rapid generation of haploids, and it allows genetic and functional analysis when coupled with transgenic technology. We report here on work performed at the Department of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Delhi, India, in which such wheat anther culture was investigated.

Paper

Website: http://www.vt.edu

Published: July 13, 2011