Somatic Polyembriogenesis of Larix sibirica in Embryogenic in vitro Culture

Abstract

The initiation of somatic embryos and their propagation in the long-term proliferating embryonal suspensor mass of Larix sibirica were studied. It was found that the increase in the number of somatic embryos in the embryogenic culture occurred as a result of cleavage of the globules of the somatic embryo and the suspensor; it less often occurred as the result of budding of the suspensor and the separation of the embryonal tubes of the suspensor. In the case of long-term proliferating cell lines (more than 8 years), the rate of cleavage did not weaken. A conclusion on the identity of morphogenic processes underlying the development of zygotic and somatic embryos of conifers is made, which is confirmed by the concept of T.B. Batygina (1999) on the parallelism of their development in vivo and in vitro.