Tolerance of wheat genotypes to lead in in vitro culture

Abstract

We studied the effects of five lead concentrations (10-7, 10-6, 10-5, 10-4 and 10-3 M) on callus growth and dry matter content in the callus tissue. Two winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars, Balkan and Proteinka, were used to isolate mature embryos. The embryos were grown on a modified MS (Murashige and Skoog, 1962) nutrient medium to which lead in the form of Pb(NO3)2 was added. Calluses from the control group were grown on a lead-free medium. During cultivation, the growth of callus tissue was observed until, 30 days alter isolation, fresh callus weight and dry matter content were measured The results showed that there were significant differences between the genotypes with regard to their response to certain lead concentrations. The highest concentration (10-3 M) significantly decreased fresh callus weight relative to the control- by 43% in Balkan and 22% in Proteinka. At the same lead concentration, the callus tissue dry matter content of Balkan increased significantly (23% relative to the control), while the increase of the same parameter in Proteinka was not significant (8.6% relative to the control). The lower lead concentrations had a lees pronounced effect, although the 10-6 M dose had a stimulatory effect on callus tissue growth in Balkan, while the 10-7 M one had the same effect in Proteinka. .

Keywords

• wheat
• lead
• tolerance
• embryo culture