Chromosome 5D instability in cell-lines of Triticum tauschii and morphological variation in regenerated plants

Immature embryos of Triticum tauschii cultured on L2 medium with 30 g . L(-1) maltose gave rise to compact and highly structured callus that readily regenerated shoots when transferred to MS medium supplemented with zeatin and indole-3-acetic acid. Two cell suspensions were initiated from the callus induced on L2 medium. An analysis of chromosome number in these cell suspensions after 3 months of culture showed that 95 and 75% of the cells had a normal complement. After 5 months, in both lines the majority of cells had chromosome complements of 2n = 13 and many of these aneuploid cells possessed a dicentric chromosome. C-banding indicated that the dicentric was often formed from chromosomes 2D and 5D. Fifty-six plants regenerated from callus were grown to maturity. Variation was observed in tiller number, flowering time, and seed-set; in two cases, the variation in early flowering was shown to be heritable. All the regenerants analysed had normal chromosome counts (2n = 2x = 14) and meiotic analyses of 35 plants revealed no obvious structural rearrangements.