The efficiency of our anther culture protocol was tested with high‐ and low‐responding genotypes, ‘Svilena’ and ‘Berengar’, and 93 F1 winter wheat crosses in 2010 and 2011. Based on data for these genotypes, the effect of genotype influenced the number of embryo‐like structures, regenerated plantlets and green plantlets, while the number of albino plantlets was affected by genotype, year and environmental factors. Although genotype also influenced the production of green plantlets from breeding crosses, with green plantlets per 100 anthers ranging from 0.04 to 28.67, the average regeneration rate over all crosses was 5.3 green plantlets/100 anthers, which resulted in a total of 11 416 well‐rooted green plantlets. The survival rate of green plantlets following acclimatization was 97.21% in 2010 and 96.34% in 2011. In this study, the phenomenon of albinism and genotype dependency did not hinder the production of more than five thousand green plantlets each year. In our experiments, anther culture proved to be an efficient method in winter wheat breeding programmes with lower costs than alternative technologies.

The influence of the developmental stage of microspores on establishing isolated microspore cultures of three Hungarian ('Szegedi 80', 'Szegedi 178', and 'Remény') and three Spanish ('Jeromin', 'Jariza', and 'Jaranda') pepper genotypes was investigated. Donor anthers containing 80% uninucleated and 20% binucleated microspores yielded the highest frequency of successful microspore cultures. Cocultures with wheat, line 'CY-45', ovaries exhibited enhanced frequency of embryoid production than those with pepper ovaries. Differences in efficiency of isolated pepper microspore culture establishment were observed among different pepper genotypes. Green plantlets were regenerated from microspore-derived embryoids, but some were exhibited abnormal growth habits, such as leaf rosetting. A total of seven fertile microspore-derived plants were obtained, including three 'Jariza', three 'Jaranda', and a single 'Szegedi 80' plant.

No abstract

Members of the aldo-keto reductase family including aldose reductases are involved in antioxidant defense by metabolizing a wide range of lipid peroxidation-derived cytotoxic compounds. Therefore, we produced transgenic wheat genotypes over-expressing the cDNA of alfalfa aldose reductase gene. These plants consequently exhibit 1.5-4.3 times higher detoxification activity for the aldehyde substrate. Permanent drought stress was generated in the greenhouse by growing wheat plants in soil with 20 % water capacity. The control and stressed plants were monitored by a semi automatic phenotyping platform providing computer-controlled watering, digital and thermal imaging. Calculation of biomass values was based on the correlation (R 2 = 0.7556) between fresh weight and green pixel-based shoot surface area. The green biomass production by plants of the three transgenic lines was 12-26-41 % higher than the non-transgenic plants' grown under water limitation. Thermal imaging of stressed nontransgenic plants indicated an elevation in the leaf temperature. The thermal status of transformants was similar at both normal and suboptimal water regime. In drought, the transgenic plants used more water during the growing season. The described phenotyping platform provided a comprehensive data set demonstrating the improved physiological condition of the drought stressed transgenic wheat plants in the vegetative growth phase. In soil with reduced water capacity two transgenic genotypes showed higher seed weight per plant than the control non-transgenic one. Limitation of greenhouse-based phenotyping in analysis of yield potential is discussed.

No abstract