Plant Tissue Cult. 12(1) : 19-25, 2002 (June)

Culture of Unfertilized Embryo Sacs of Pearl Millet - Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.

T. V. R. Lakshmi, K. Aruna Lakshmi and Narayana R. Isola¹

Department of Botany, Andhra University, Waltair-530 002, India
E-mail: rajyalakshmit@hotmail.com

Key words: Unfertilized embryo sacs, Culture, Pennisetum glaucum

Abastract

The morphology and structure of isolated unfertilized embryo sacs of pearl millet, Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R.Br. is similar to those in situ. In all cultivars a minimum of five intact embryo sacs could be isolated from 30 ovaries per hr. Isolated embryo sacs (30-50%) were viable for four days on MS medium. An increase in the number of polar nuclei was osberved in 15% of the embryo sacs cultured for two - four days on MS + 3.0 mg/l BAP. These results hold promise in generating gynogenetic haploids from some pearl millet cultivars.

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