Salt stress-tolerant maize production by anther culture

Abstract

An anther culture was initiated from the crossing of the Arizona 8601 hybrid of maize, highly tolerant to salt stress, and the M11M14 hybrid, a genotype with positive androgenetic response. The basic medium used was Yu-Pei modified with 60 g/l of sucrose. Two anther-derived plants were obtained: one with chlorophyll-deficient leaves, and the other a normal green plant. The latter showed a total of 20 chromosomes, as a consequence of spontaneous diploidyzation resulting in the production of a pure line called LW1. This line was multiplied and tested in a greenhouse for salinity tolerance, and a behaviour similar to that of the tolerant hybrid Arizona 8601 was observed when submitted to different levels of NaCl (0.0, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.2%).