Somatic Embryogenesis of Some Member Ornamental Genera of Amaryllidaceae and Allied Families: the Similarities and Differences

Somatic embryogenesis has been employed in various basic and applied studies such as cellular differentiation of plants, generating transgenic en masse and for mass propagation of elite, endangered and ornamental plants. The stud- ies undertaken in some monocot genera (Eucharis, Hippeastrum, Crinum, Caladium, Gloriosa and Allium) suggest that in vitro embryogeny may also help in establishing relationship among plants, plant groups of similar or dissimilar history. The investigated plants are a few representative monocotyledonous genera, belonging to closely-related families in which in vitro embryogenesis was studied. The observations indicated that Eucharis and Hippeastrum, member genera of the family Amaryllidaceae showed similarity, while Crinum of the same family showed dissimilarities in in vitro em- bryogeny. In these investigated monocot plants, secondary embryo formations were not observed on primary embryos. Beside embryo ontogeny, the structure and development of embryo, some degrees of similarities in the requirement of plant growth regulator (PGR), especially the BAP's participation (2.22- 4.40 µM) in embryo formation, presence of em- bryo dormancy was also noted. The scanning electron microscopy of embryo was conducted and has been presented in this communication. It is envisaged that similar in vitro embryogenesis studies involving plants belonging to different po- sitions in phylogenetic tree would be immensely valuable in future research including in vitro embryogenesis.

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