Abstract
It is well known that abscisic acid (ABA) is involved in acquisition of desiccation tolerance and dormancy in zygotic embryos. It has been reported that the VP1/ABI3 factor functions as a transcriptional factor on seed specific ABA signal transduction. We had suggested that two carrot homologs of the VP1/ABI3 factor, C-ABI3 and C-ABI3-L, are involved in the control of expression of some ABA-inducible genes in carrot zygotic and somatic embryos. We analyzed in detail the expression of C-ABI3 and C-ABI3-L in carrot somatic embryogenesis by quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR. The expression pattern of each gene, C-ABI3 and C-ABI3-L, during somatic embryo development was obviously different, although the expression of both genes was observed tissue-specifically in embryogenic cells, somatic embryos, and developing seeds. These results suggest that C-ABI3 and C-ABI3-L may function collaboratively on ABA signal transduction in carrot embryos.
