Two ways of plant regeneration from immature cotyledons of pea

Two different systems of plant regeneration via organogenesis and embryogenesis from immature cotyledons of pea ( Pisum sativum L.) were developed. The first system was direct multiple shoot regeneration from the proximal to the embryo axis, injured part of cotyledon. The ability of six Polish cultivars to shoot formation was very high. The percent of regenerating cotyledons was from 73 to 86 and mean number of shoots from 3.5 to 9.9 after seven weeks of culture. This multiplification could be prolonged for next several months. The second system was somatic embryogenesis, initiating from the same part of cotyledon simultaneously with slowly proliferating callus. Only three out of six cultivars formed embryoids. The differences of ability to embryo formation ranged between 43% of responding explants for Heiga cultivar to only 6% for Cud Ameryki. The mean number of embryoids was from 4.2 to 2.3.