Winter barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) anthers were cultured on different liquid and on starch-solidified media. The optimal embryo and callus formation with different F1-lines and the cv. 'Igri' was obtained on a liquid medium with 20% Ficoll, 20 g/l maltose and barley starch. But the influence of the growth conditions of the donor plants and the genotypical differences are still enormous. The procedure has been optimized to such an extent that it can be used economically.

For the winter barley cultivar 'Igri', a microspore isolation and regeneration procedure is described which allows the production of such vigorous microspore fractions that this single-cell system can be used as a target for DNA uptake. Up to 60 % of the vigorous microspores isolated from the anther, and cultured in liquid modified MS medium, formed embryoids and/or calli. Such preparations were used for trials in DNA uptake with the plasmid pBI 221. Transformation trials were performed with polyethylene glycol as the inducing agent. With this treatment, a relative increase of fluorescence could be shown under UV light indicative of transient expression of the uidA gene.

No abstract