Abstract
In Arabidopsis thaliana, it has been shown that embryonic traits are repressed during transition to vegetative growth phase by chromatin remodeling via histone modification. We reported that cultivation of seeds on Trichostatin A (TSA: histone de-acetylation inhibitor)-containing medium induces ectopic expression of embryogenesis-related genes and somatic embryo (SE) formation after transfer to TSA-free medium. In this study, we examined whether SE formation can also be induced on other plant species by TSA treatment.
At first, we investigated whether the entire plants can be regenerated from the SE induced by TSA treatment. When the SE were cultivated on B5 solid medium during 4 weeks, rosette leaves and roots were formed and seeds were obtained on the regenerated plants. These seeds germinate normally. To investigate whether SE formation by TSA treatment can be seen in other plant species, we examined SE formation by cultivation of seeds on TSA-containing medium using three related species of Arabidopsis thaliana; Arabidopsis griffithiana, Capsella bursa-pastris, Olimarabidopsis pumila. SE formation was observed in C. bursa-pastris, but not in A. griffithiana and O. pumila.
