Somaclonal variation in durum wheat

The regeneration of plants from cells and tissues is an essential step in any breeding program incorporating plant biotechnology techniques. One of the main objectives of in vitro plant explant culture is to set up appropriate culture conditions to obtain somatic embryos capable of subsequently regenerating whole plants.With the aim of applying selection at cellular level to improve water stress tolerance in durum wheat, we evaluated the somatic embryogenesis and regeneration capacity of seven Moroccan varieties, using two types of explants: Immature and mature embryos. The study of somaclonal variation revealed phenotypic variations both during the in vitro phase and during ex-vitro growth.