Preliminary Studies on Obtaining Haploid Plants in Spinach

This presented study contains the preliminary results of the project numbered as “TAGEM/BBAD/12/A09/P10/01” carried out by Republic of Turkey Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock to develop protocol for obatining haploid embryo in spinach.  Pollination with irradiated pollen and anther culture methods were used to obtain haploid plants in this study. For the study of anther culture, three spinach varieties (Koto, Favorit, and Greenstar) and 4 different growth media (MS+2 mg·L^-1 NAA+0.5 mg·L^-1 GA3, MS+4 mg·L^-1 NAA+0.5 mg·L^-1 GA3, MS+ mg·L^-1 NAA+1 mg·L^-1 BAP+ MS+4 mg·L^-1 NAA+1 mg·L^-1 BAP) were tested to obtain haploid embryos. Gynogenesis studies using irradiated pollen was performed with again same three spinach varieties and three gamma ray doses (100, 150, and 200 Gy) coming from Co⁶⁰. The MS nutrient medium containing 1 mg·L^-1 IAA was used for embryo germination. Outcame of this study showed that different varieties produce different results on the doses of gamma ray. Embryo germination and plant regeneration from these embryos were provided from 100, 150 Gy gamma ray doses of Koto and Greenstar varieties and 150, 200 Gy of Favorit variety. Molecular studies revealed that plants obtained from the embryos were spontaneous dihaploid. In terms of both the number of embryos and the number of plants obtained, Koto variety was found to be the most successful variety and 150 Gy most successful dose.