In vitro response of encapsulated somatic embryos of camellia

Abstract

Somatic embryos of Camellia japonica were hydrogel encapsulated using 3% sodium alginate and 0.1 M calcium chloride to produce synthetic seeds. Both germinability and repetitive embryogenesis capacity of the encapsulated embryos were investigated. The frequency of in vitro germination into plants of artificial seeds was affected by various nutrient additives included in the encapsulating matrix. The addition of Ca-free Murashige and Skoog basal medium plus 3% sucrose plus 14.4 µM gibberellic acid and 28.5 µM indole-3-acetic acid to the alginate capsule resulted in 63% plant recovery rate, which was similar to that of non-encapsulated embryos. Encapsulation of somatic embryos did not negatively affect the maintenance of their embryogenic competence, the mean number of secondary embryos being significantly increased when the alginate beads included the growth regulators of the secondary embryogenesis medium (4.44 µM 6-benzyladenine and 0.41 µM indole-3-butyric acid). Storage at 4°C significantly reduced the survival and germination into plants frequencies of both encapsulated and non-encapsulated embryos, but the reduction was much greater for non-encapsulated embryos. Plant recovery of encapsulated embryos was 40% and 30% following storage for 30 and 60 days, respectively.