DNA variation in flax tissue culture

Abstract

The DNAs from leaves and callus from a series of flax genotrophs have been compared. The probes used for this comparison represent all of the highly repeated DNA sequence families in the flax genome. The abundance of most of the families could vary in culture, but the extent of variation was dependent on the genotroph. The extent of the variation observed between leaf DNA and callus DNA from a single genotroph was greater than that observed between the genotrophs in vivo. The DNAs from the progeny of a number of regenerated plants were also compared. They sometimes differed both from the callus from which the plants were regenerated and the original line from which the callus was derived. Individual progeny from a single inbred regenerated plant also differed.Key words: flax, DNA variation, somaclonal variation.