The effect of copper on plant regeneration in barley microspore culture

Isolated microspore culture is an excellent system for the production of doubled haploids in many crops, including barley. In a more traditional barley anther culture method copper sulphate is known to enhance plant regeneration. Here we report that one hundred times higher concentration of copper sulphate in the isolated microspore culture of two spring barley genotypes compared to the standard content in the induction medium resulted in a 34% increase of total plant regeneration. Detailed analysis of plant regeneration showed that additional supplementation of copper sulphate increased not only the regeneration of green plants but also proportionately that of albino plants. Hence, the results from two studied genotypes do not support an assumption that the addition of copper reduces albinism in barley microspore culture.