Background: Plant tissue cultures have the potential to reprogram the development of microspores from normal gametophytic to sporophytic pathway resulting in the formation of androgenic embryos. The efficiency of this process depends on the genotype, media composition and external conditions. However, this process frequently results in the regeneration of albino instead of green plants. Successful regeneration of green plants is affected by the concentration of copper sulfate (CuSO₄) and silver nitrate (AgNO₃) and the length of induction step. In this study, we aimed at concurrent optimization of these three factors in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), and triticale (x Triticosecale spp. Wittmack ex A. Camus 1927) using the Taguchi method. We evaluated uniform donor plants under varying experimental conditions of in vitro anther culture using the Taguchi approach, and verified the optimized conditions.

Results: Optimization of the regeneration conditions resulted in an increase in the number of green regenerants compared with the control. Statistic Taguchi method for optimization of the in vitro tissue culture plant regeneration via anther cultures allowed reduction of the number of experimental designs from 27 needed if full factorial analysis is used to 9. With the increase in the number of green regenerants, the number of spontaneous doubled haploids decreased. Moreover, in barley and triticale, the number of albino regenerants was reduced.

Conclusion: The statistic Taguchi approach could be successfully used for various factors (here components of induction media, time of incubation on induction media) at a one time, that may impact on cereals anther cultures to improve the regeneration efficiency.