Transfer of salt tolerance from Aeleuropus littorulis sinensis to wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) via asymmetric somatic hybridization.

Protoplasts of wheat c.v. Jinan 177 were fused by PEG method with the UV irradiated protoplasts of A. littoralis - a salt tolerant plant intertribal to wheat. The early-formed regenerated clones were identified as hybrids by chromosome, isozyme and RAPD analysis. Their salt-tolerant ability was compared with both parents in relative growth, proline accumulation and Na(+)/K(+) ratio under salt stress, and was proved higher than wheat, indicating some corresponding genes coding salt-tolerance had been transferred into the hybrids. However, the hybrid clones could only differentiated to albino plants. Further investigations are now being conducted to solve this problem.