Mapping the anther culture response genes in maize (Zea mays L.).

In order to map the genes conditioning the induction of embryos during our anther culture process, we evaluated F2 plants from three different crosses for their anther culture ability and also performed RFLP analysis on these plants. The results showed that six chromosomal regions appear to be associated with the ability to induce embryo-like structures from maize microspores. These regions are located on chromosomes 1 (two regions), 3, 5, 7, and 8. Some of these chromosomes are identical to those found in previous studies and we have localized the regions more precisely. Notably, all chromosome regions identified, except one, are near viviparous mutant loci. Since the viviparous mutations are known to involve the plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA), these results suggest that ABA or its antagonist, gibberellic acid (GA3), might somehow be related to anther culture ability. We also propose some combinations of probes to screen for anther culture ability in the three genotypes studied.