Culture conditions for efficient induction of green plants from isolated microspores of barley
Subculture regime and carbohydrate concentration of the medium had a marked effect on the regeneration of green plantlets from mechanically isolated microspores of Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Kymppi. A sevenfold increase in the yield of green plants was obtained by shortening the suspension culture time of the developing proembryo mass from 4 to 3 weeks. A further twofold increase was obtained by increasing the maltose concentration of the microspore isolation medium and of the culture medium. Under optimal conditions, a mean of 169±97 green plants per spike were regenerated.
Progress in Doubled Haploid Technology in Higher Plants
In the early 1990s, many basic protocols were developed for haploidy and doubled haploidy, but most were inefficient. During the last decade, progress in technology has been achieved mainly by empirical, time and cost consuming testing of protocols; as a consequence success was proportional to the number of laboratories involved. In the most frequently studied crops (barley, wheat, triticale, maize, rice and rapeseed) improved protocols are now used routinely in breeding and although several problems remain the benefits make doubled haploidy well worthwhile. Significant advances have also been achieved in vegetable, fruit, ornamental, woody and medicinal species, though responses in many remain low with legumes being particularly recalcitrant. There has been resurgence in doubled haploids over the last few years with protocols published for almost 200 plant species. The present review aims to show the recent progress in haploid and doubled haploid technology of higher plants.
Instrumentation and Automated Photometric Titration Procedure for Total Acidity Determination in Red Wine Employing a Multicommuted Flow System
An automated procedure for photometric titration of red wine and associated instrumentation is described. The procedure was based on the flow-batch approach implemented employing multicommutation. The photometric detection was carried out using a homemade LED-based photometer. The mixing device, LED, and photodetector were attached to the titration chamber in order to form a compact and small-sized unit. The flow system comprised an automatic injector and three-way solenoid valves, which were controlled by a microcomputer through an electronic interface card. The software, written in Quick BASIC 4.5, was designed with abilities to accomplish all steps of the titration procedure including data acquisition and real-time processing to decide about the course of titration in the following step and so forth, until the titration endpoint was reached. The usefulness of the proposed titration system was demonstrated by analyzing red wine samples. When results were compared with those obtained using the AOAC reference method, no significant difference was observed at the 95% confidence level. A relative standard deviation of ca  2% (n=9 ) was obtained when processing a typical red wine sample containing 7.3 gl -1 total acidity expressed as tartaric acid.