ORGANOGENESIS AND EMBRYOGENESIS: GENETIC AND PHYSIOLOGICAL APPROACHES

Plants present a remarkable plasticity to respond to external stimuli, and an even more diffuse propensity for asexual or vegetative propagation, a capacity which is also fully expressed in plant cells or tissues cultured “in vitro”. Regeneration can be accomplished through somatic embryogenesis (the structures formed are bipolar with cotyledons and roots) or organogenesis (formation of shoots or roots).

Since most major crops remain recalcitrant in culture, not forming shoots or embryos even under a multitude of different culture conditions, it is important to reach a basic understanding of the regulatory processes of morphogenesis.
For this purpose, simple experimental regeneration systems in model plants such as carrot and Nicotiana are being used, with the objective to identify genes involved in embryogenesis or organogenesis, to study their role in development and the mechanisms of gene regulation.

Examples of questions currently being addressed through the research work on plant regeneration “in vitro” are outlined and some answers offered.

I International Symposium on In Vitro Culture and Horticultural Breeding

V. Nuti Ronchi

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1990.280.1