PROTOCOL FOR IN VITRO ANTHER CULTURE IN TOMATO AND THE CHARACTERIZATION OF REGENERATED PLANTS

This paper presents a methodology of obtaining whole tomato plants from anther culture and their characterization. Year 1: the initiation of anther cultures and in vitro development of the new regenerated structures. Year 2: phenotypic characterization of plantlets acclimatized to ex vitro conditions, and their molecular analysis with SSR markers. Year 3: morphological characterization of plants obtained by germination of seeds from plants that fruited in the previous year and their molecular analysis with SSR markers. The phenotype descriptors and the SSR markers revealed differences among the regenerants and the donor variety. The uniformity of the genetic profiles with SSR markers in plants obtained from seeds of androgenic plants, but with several differences in comparison to anther-donor plants, indicates that some of the regenerated plantlets may have microspore origin