Investigations were undertaken on the use of somatic embryogenesis to generate cocoa swollen shoot virus (CSSV) disease free clonal propagules from infected trees. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) capillary electrophoresis revealed the presence of CSSV in all the callus tissues induced from the CSSV-infected Amelonado cocoa trees (T1, T2 and T4). The virus was transmitted to primary somatic embr...

Majority of the Indian soybean cultivars are recalcitrant to tissue culture regeneration. The present communication reports the development of somatic embryogenesis in a liquid culture medium from immature cotyledons of G. max. Following induction with 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) or naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), the number of somatic embryos and percentage of explants that responded...

During differentiation, somatic nuclei acquire highly specialized DNA and chromatin modifications, which are thought to result in cellular memory of the differentiated state. Upon somatic nuclear transfer into oocytes, the donor nucleus may have to undergo reprogramming of these epigenetic marks in order to achieve totipotency. This may involve changes in epigenetic features similar to those th...

Background: The mammalian oocyte has the unique feature of supporting fertilization and normal development while being able of reprogramming the nuclei of somatic cells towards pluripotency, and occasionally even totipotency. Whilst oocyte quality is known to decay with somatic ageing, it is not a given that different biological functions decay concurrently. In this study, we tested whether ooc...

Continuous production of healthy plantlets of Sapindus trifoliatus L. was achieved via somatic embryos from long term cultures of an embryogenic mass (EM). A highly embryogenic culture of S. trifoliatus L. was obtained by recurrent embryogenesis from somatic embryos cultured on Murashige and Skoog's (MS) medium supplemented with kinetin (2.3 microM) and benzyladenine (8.8 microM). The cultures ...

Orchardgrass is a member of the Poaceae, a family characterized by monocotyledonous-type embryos. This species is unique in that somatic embryogenesis can be induced from the cultured leaves of potted plants, which can be maintained conveniently in the greenhouse. Both embryogenic callus and isolated somatic embryos develop directly from cultured leaf sections. Embryogenic callus can be maintai...

Somatic embryos and rooted plantlets have been regenerated from light-initiated embryogenic callus derived from mature embryos of Picea abies stored seeds. Under a 16 hour photoperiod, mature zygotic embryos were cultured on a modified half-strength Murashige-Skoog medium without NH4NO3 and supplemented with 5 mM glutamine, 4.5 pM N6-benzyladenine (BA) and 10.7 PM naphthalene-acetic acid (NAA) ...

BACKGROUND Global activation of the embryonic genome (EGA), one of the most critical steps in early mammalian embryo development, is recognized as the time when interspecies somatic cell nuclear transfer (iSCNT) embryos fail to thrive. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS In this study, we analyzed the EGA-related transcriptome of rhesus-bovine iSCNT 8- to 16-cell embryos and dissected the reprogra...