Effects of anther culture for selected varieties of Solanum melongena L.

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.