Inheritance of ability to form callus in rice anther culture was studied using the diallel technique. Anthers containing uninucleate microspores from two japonica cultivais ('Minehikari' and 'Taipei 309'), two indica cultivars ('Mingolo' and 'Suweon 290'), and 12 F1's of the diallel crosses involving these four parents were cultured on Chaleffs R2 medium and evaluated for callus induction. The parents showed significant differences in anther callus formation, from 41.9% ('Taipei 309') to 0% ('Suweon 290'). Callus induction ability was inherited as a recessive character conditioned by a single block of genes. Additive gene effects were predominant. The japonica types seemed to be good combiners for callus induction. The order of dominance among the four parents was 'Suweon 290', 'Mingolo', 'Minehikari' and 'Taipei 309'.