Modern plant breeding and genetic technologies are used nowadays for breeding vegetables/rapeseed/wheat varieties, including F1-hybrids. Creation of pure lines is one of the basic requirements in F1-hybrids technology. Doubled haploid (DH) lines are completely homozygous lines and anther/isolated microspore culture is an efficient method for DH line production. We are establishing efficient protocols for doubled haploid production in Rice (via parthenogenesis induction); sorghum (via microspore embryogenesis); tomato (via microspore embryogenesis).  

Tomato: Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.), belonging to the family of Solanaceae, is one of the most important vegetable crops that has achieved tremendous popularity over the last century. Modern plant breeding and genetic technologies are used nowadays for breeding tomato varieties, including F1-hybrids. Tomato has tremendous potential of heterosis for earliness, total yield, resistance attributes and uniformity, thus, its improvement, in parallel to contemporary demands of the climate, growing practices and the markets, is mainly carried out via the hybrid breeding using conventional techniques or doubled haploid (DH) technology through the anther and isolated microspore culture (IMC) systems.

Fig.. Shed microspore culture in L.esulentum cv. Berlina. A: anthers at the initial culture; B, B: mid to late-uninucleate microspores; c, C’: microspore-derived structures with 3-5 nuclei; D, D’: microspore-derived structures with 6-8 nuclei; E, E’; microspore-derived structures with more than 9 nuclei; F, F’; microspore-derived embryo; G: globular and torpedo MDEs (Showed by arrows ) after two weeks