Abstract:
Anther culture is a plant breeding technique that induces haploid embryogenesis from
microspores to rapidly produce homozygous lines. This study aimed to determine the effect of
anther culture for five selected brinjal varieties (EGH 6, EGH 9, EGH 13, EGH 16, and EG 11) by
culturing sterilized anthers on MS medium supplemented with varying kinetin concentrations [1,
2, 3 and 0 mg/L (control group)] for callus induction. The experiment was carried out in a
Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replicates. The variety EGH 16 and the kinetin
concentration of 3mg/L gave significantly lowest number of days of 16.5 ± 0.62c and 20.66 ± 1.35a
for callus initiation respectively. The significantly highest number of callus was obtained by the
variety EGH 16 (7.16 ± 0.62a) and by the kinetin concentration of 3mg/L (6.33 ± 0.63a) as well.
The significantly highest number of greenish callus which indicates chlorophyll development and
high regeneration potential was obtained by the variety EGH 16 (5.75 ± 0.52a) and by the kinetin
concentration of 3mg/L (4.66 ± 0.58a). The largest diameter of one-month-old calli was
recordedin variety EGH 16 (8.12 ± 0.51a) and with 1mg/L kinetin (6.49 ± 0.56a). Considering the
combinations, EGH 16 x 3 mg/L kinetin gave the fastest callus initiation and the highest number
of calli and greenish calli (14.33 ±0.33e), (10.33 ± 0.33a) and (8.33 ±0.33a) respectively. However,
the combination EGH 16 x 1mg/L kinetin produced the largest callus diameter (10.11 ± 1.20a). All
differences were significant at p<0.05 unless otherwise stated. The findings show that brinjal
variety EGH 16 and 3 mg/L kinetin effectively promote callus initiation in anther culture, likely
due to their strong genetic and hormonal influence.
