The main constraint to the transfer of desired traits into cultivated chickpea from wild Cicer relatives is the presence of post-zygotic barriers which result in abortion of the immature embryo following interspecific hybridisation. Rescue of hybrid embryos in vitro and regeneration of hybrid plantlets could allow chickpea breeders to transfer desirable traits from wild relatives of chickpea. The development of embryo rescue techniques using selfed chickpea and selfed wild relatives is being used as a first step to protocols for wide hybrids. Optical microscopy studies of embryogenesis, in both selfs and hybrids, identified deleterious changes in the fertilised hybrid seed as early as 2-4 days after pollination in some crosses. These observations suggest that the appropriate time to rescue chickpea  C. bijugum hybrids is at the early globular stage of embryogenesis (2-7 days old), which requires the development of a complex tissue culture medium. In contrast hybrids between chickpea  C. pinnatifidum abort later (up to 15-20 days old) at the heartshaped or torpedo stages, and are easier to rescue in vitro. Genotype also plays a significant role in the ability of immature selfed ovules to germinate in vitro. In this paper we report on the optimisation of protocols for rescueing immature embryos using selfed chickpea and its wild relatives in ovule, and subsequently to regenerate plantlets.

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Male sterility is described for the first time in lupin crop species Lupinus angustifolius L. and Lupinus luteus L. and is also characterized in the Andean lupin, Lupinus mutabilis Sweet. In L. angustifolius and L. luteus, male-sterile plants were identified in artificially induced mutation populations, while in L. mutabilis, both naturally occurring and induced male-sterile plants were selected. For L. angustifolius artificially induced sterility, the segregation ratios in F 1 , F 2 and backcrosses showed a single-gene recessive inheritance and was concluded to be of a nuclear rather than cytoplasmic form. In L. luteus, male-sterile plants were recovered from an M 3 mutation population derived from cv. ÔWodjilÕ, and several were consistent with that of single recessive gene, most likely nuclear. A naturally occurring sterility in L. mutabilis was concluded to be cytoplasmic with identification of restorer and maintainer genotypes. The trait in L. mutabilis has greatly increased the rate of F 1 seed set with zero selfing. Male sterility could be useful for increasing crossing efficiency in breeding programmes, for exploiting heterosis and for interspecific hybridization.