SOMACLONAL VARIATION FROM MATURE EMBRYO EXPLANTS OF SOME EGYPTIAN BARLEY GENOTYPES

Somaclonal variation is used to de- scribe the occurrence of genetic variants derived from in vitro procedures; it is also called culture-induced variation. Many plant biotechnology applications use plant tissue culture as a tool, and the unpredict- able nature of these variations represents a serious problem, especially for the com- mercial applications of such technology. Such variations in micro propagated mate- rial, such as genetic and epigenetic modi- fications, need to be characterized. Bio- chemical genetic analysis (protein and isozymes) and molecular genetic analysis (RAPD-PCR) were applied to study somaclonal variations in three barley gen- otypes (El-Kasr, G130 and G126).

In conclusion, this study demon- strated the establishment of an influence of different media composition on the embryogenic response and regeneration of the different barley genotypes. Biochemi- cal and molecular genetic analysis of pro- tein, isozymes and RAPD-PCR proved to be efficient tools for detecting the occur- rence of somaclonal variation in the three barley genotypes El-kasr, G126 and G130.