Abstract
Somatic embryogenesis is unique character of plant cells. To understand the molecular mechanism of somatic embryogenesis, we tried to isolate novel embryogenesis-related genes. In carrot, Embryogenic Cell (EC), can be maintained in the medium with auxin. Only after the depletion of auxin, EC starts the embryogenesis. We speculated that some genes expressed during the early stage after auxin depletion would be essential for somatic embryogensis. We report here one cDNA 18B-H10 which showed specific expression in embryogenic cells by auxin depletion.
18B-H10 cDNA had 1523bp nucleotides, and encoded a polypeptide of 443 amino acids. Homology search analysis showed that 18B-H10 was most homologous to carrot EP1. 18B-H10 was preferentially expressed in EC 8hrs after auxin depletion, then the expression decreased. Carrot seedling and Non-Embryogenic Cell (NC) which loses regeneration ability showed low expression of 18B-H10. Further characterization of cell specific expression and physiological roles of 18B-H10 are on going.
