M.Sc. (Biochemistry) / The culture of plant anther tissue in vitro, is an important tool which could be used, when perfectedr in the conventional breeding of crop plants. Using this technique it may be possible to generate bomozygotIc lines in one or two generations in contrast to the seven or eight generations required by conventional breeding programs. Physiological data on the behavior of cultured anther tissue suggests that the genotype is the most Important factor Influencing this factor with respect to wheat barley and most other crop plants. Optimal culture conditions with respect to culture medium and environmental factors have already been established. It would appear that a critical factor, present in the pollen cells of anther tissue, governs the variation and differentiation of the embrionic pollen in the formation of haploid plants. Many important systems of cellular signalling and therefore cellular regulation are mediated by protein kinases and phosphatases. An examination of protein kinase activity in normal and anther tissue may yield information about the process of differentiation. Identification of key kinase activities may provide plant breeders with a means of selecting more responsive genotypes for the use In the anther culture technique In VItro. In this manuscript a caparison is made between protein kinase activities in crude extracts of meristematic...