Gametic selection in anther culture of rice (Oryza sauva L.).

The segregation and recombination of heterozygous isozyme markers have been monitored in anther culture derivatives (i.e., six nonmorphogenic microspore-derived callus [NMC] populations and two anther culture plant [ACP] populations) and F2 plants generated from six F1 hybrids of rice, including five japonica upland/improved indica tropical hybrids. The alleles in excess at some loci displaying skewed segregations in the F2s were consistently overrepresented in the NMC populations. These alleles were also generally found to be overabundant in the two ACP populations except for certain loci that contrastingly segregated in a 1∶1 ratio. Additional distortions were found to be specific to AC derivatives indicating the existence of in vitro gametic selection. Overall, however, the gametic selection in the ACP materials was neutral with regard to the indica and japonica differentiation. Estimates of linkages between markers borne by chromosome 6 using AC-derivative data were consistent with those noted in the F2s and with current knowledge of the isozyme locus linkage map. Given the average neutrality of gametic selection and the consistency of linkage relationships in the ACPs, their further use as rice molecular mapping and gene tagging populations can be investigated with confidence.