To improve Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of tobacco, factors influencing gene delivery, including genotype of the plant, bacterial strain, and Agrobacterium transformation procedure, were tested via direct somatic embryogenesis. Leaf tissue of three different tobacco genotypes (Nicotiana tabacum L. cvs. Samsun, and Xanthi, and N. benthamiana) we...

AGAMOUS-Like15 (AGL15) is a MADS domain transcriptional regulator that promotes somatic embryogenesis by binding DNA and regulating gene expression. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) analysis previously identified DNA fragments with which AGL15 associates in vivo, and a low-throughput approach revealed a role for AGL15 in gibberellic acid catabolism that is relevant to embryogenesis. However...

Somatic embryogenesis is a form of induced plant cell totipotency where embryos develop from somatic or vegetative cells in the absence of fertilization. Somatic embryogenesis can be induced in vitro by exposing explants to stress or growth regulator treatments. Molecular genetics studies have also shown that ectopic expression of specific embryo- and meristem-expressed transcription factors or...

An efficient regeneration system through somatic embryogenesis was developed for date palm cv. Najda. Adventitious bud and proximal leaf segments cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with various combinations of auxins and cytokinins induced embryogenesis after at least 6 months of culture. Somatic embryogenesis induction seemed correlated with the type of the explant, the i...

LEAFY COTYLEDON2 (LEC2) is a central regulator of embryogenesis sufficient to induce somatic cells to form embryos when expressed ectopically. Here, we analyze the cellular processes induced by LEC2, a B3 domain transcription factor, that may underlie its ability to promote somatic embryogenesis. We show auxin-responsive genes are induced after LEC2 activation in seedlings. Genes encoding enzym...

Effects of application in vivo of glyphosate, fluridone, and paclobutrazol to glasshouse-grown donor plants of Pennisetum purpureum Schum. on endogenous levels of abscisic acid (ABA) and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) in young leaves and on somatic embryogenesis in cultured leaf explants were studied. Treatment of plants with glyphosate (100 milligrams per liter) resulted in elevated levels of endo...

Primary cassava somatic embryos were induced on a medium without CaCl(2), however, no or only a few secondary somatic embryos were formed from them. With 15 mM CaCl(2) in the medium for induction of cassava primary embryos, more secondary somatic embryos were produced from them, and they were much effective in maintaining their embryogenic capacity than the controls of embryos which were induce...