Barley seeds of six Indian varieties were provided by Gene
Bank Department of Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and
Cultivated Plant Research (IPK) – Germany. The accession
numbers are shown in Table 1.
Seeds were dehusked and after washing with tap water surface
sterilized by soaking in 70% ethanol for 1 min, rinsing with
sterile distilled water, soaking in 0.1% (w/v) mercuric chloride
solution for 7 min followed by rinsing with sterile distilled
water (10 times). The seeds were kept in 250 ml conical flasks
containing sterile water for 24 h at 4 C. Mature embryos were
excised from seeds by a scalpel and cultured on media.