As part of a breeding program to select tropical maize lines which are able to regenerate plants from embryogenic calli, three lines obtained from a flint maize variety, and their respective hybrids, have been investigated. Short-term tissue cultures were obtained from immature embryos inoculated on N6 medium suplemented with 1.5 mg L-1 2,4-D and 12 mM L-proline. The frequency of 45 day-old embryogenic calli was similar to those of the best genotypes described in the literature (83-99%), reflecting the high quality of the genotypes evaluated to estabilish short-term tissue cultures. The average number of fertile regenerated plants in 2-3 month-old cultures ranged from 2 to 8.15 per callus, and the hybrids 13342/5 x 13342/2 and 132331/1 x 13342/5 showed the bestg performance. The results show that these genotypes may be used in programs involving plant transformation and genotype propagation.
maize; tissue culture; somatic embryogenesis; regeneration