Patent Abstract:
the present invention is a method for reproducing coniferous trees by somatic embryogenesis using plant tissue culture techniques . the method comprises a multistage culturing process . a suitable explant , typically the fertilized embryo excised from a mature or immature seed , is first cultured on a medium that induces multiple early stage proembryos . preferably the proembryos from the indication stage are further multiplied in a second culture having reduced growth hormones . the early stage proembryos are then placed in or on a late stage proembryo development culture having a significantly higher osmotic potential than the previous stage or stages . this increased osmotic potential medium is a critical key to the development of very robust late stage proembryos having at least about 100 cells and multiple suspensor cells . culturing from this point coninues in an embryo development medium very low in or lacking growth hormones but containing abscisic acid . after a period of several weeks cotyledonary embryos will have formed . these have a well defined bipolar structure with cotyledonary primordia at one end and a latent radicle at the other . culturing to this point is carried out in darkness or greatly subdued light . the cotyledonary embryos are then transferred to a growth medium with a light / dark photoperiod for development of plantlets . the plantlets may then be transplanted to soil for further growth . the method has been successful with a broad range of species and with numerous genotypes that could not previously be propagated by embryogenesis .

Detailed Description:
the process of the present invention is not limited to any single culture medium or to the use of specific growth hormones . any of a number of well known media , such as that of murashige and skoog ( 1962 ), may be used . however , the present inventors have found the basal medium described in table 1 to give excellent results , particularly when used for culturing loblolly pine ( pinus taeda ). the basal medium is modified for each of the various culturing stages as shown in table 2 . table 1______________________________________basal medium ( modified 1 / 2 p6 basal salts *) constitient concentration , mg / l______________________________________nh . sub . 4 no . sub . 3 603 . 8kno . sub . 3 909 . 9kh . sub . 2 po . sub . 4 136 . 1ca ( no . sub . 3 ). sub . 2 . 4h . sub . 2 o 236 . 2mgso . sub . 4 . 7h . sub . 2 0 246 . 5mg ( no . sub . 3 ). sub . 2 . 6h . sub . 2 o 256 . 5mgcl . sub . 2 . 6h . sub . 2 o 101 . 7ki 4 . 15h . sub . 3 bo . sub . 3 15 . 5mnso . sub . 4 . h . sub . 2 o 10 . 5znso . sub . 4 . 7h . sub . 2 o 14 . 4namoo . sub . 4 . 2h . sub . 2 o 0 . 125cuso . sub . 4 . 5h . sub . 2 o 0 . 125cocl . sub . 2 . 6h . sub . 2 o 0 . 125feso . sub . 4 . 7h . sub . 2 o 6 . 95na . sub . 2 edta 9 . 33sucrose 30 , 000 . myo - inositol 1 , 000 . casein hydrolysate 500 . 0glutamine 450 . 0thiamine . hcl 1 . 00pyridoxine . hcl 0 . 50nicotinic acid 0 . 50glycine 2 . 00difco agar 6 , 000 . ph adjusted to 5 . 7______________________________________ * according to teasdale , dawson , and woolhouse ( 1986 ) table 2______________________________________composition of media for different stage treatments______________________________________bm . sub . 1induction mediumbm + 2 , 4 - d ( 50 μm ) + kin ( 20 μm ) + bap ( 20 μm ) bm . sub . 2maintenance and multiplication mediumbm + 2 , 4 - d ( 5 μm ) + kin ( 2 μm ) + bap ( 2 μm ) bm . sub . 3late proembryo development mediumbm . sub . 2 + 9000 mg / l myo - inositolbm . sub . 4embryo development mediumbm + 4 . 0 to 8 . 0 mg / l abscisic acidbm . sub . 5germination mediumbm modified by reducing sucrose to 20 , 000 mg / l , myo - inositol to 100 . 0 mg / l , glutamine to 200 . 0 mg / l , and casein hydrolysate to 0 . 0 mg / l______________________________________ a number of abbreviations are used in the following text . these are in common use in the field of tissue culture . it will be understood by those skilled in the art that other plant growth hormones can be substituted for those just noted . as examples , iaa ( indole - 3 - acetic acid ), iba ( indole - 3 - butyric acid ), and naa ( naphthalene - 2 - acetic acid ) are effective auxins and 2 - ip ( n 6 - isopentenylaminopurine ) is frequently used as a cytokinin . a critical key to the present invention is the careful control of the osmotic potential of each of the media used in the various culturing stages . a large group of chemical materials are suitable as osmoticants . in general these are highly water soluble polyhydroxylated molecules that include either simple or complex sugars , hexitols , and cyclitols . the cyclitols are normally six carbon ring compounds that are hexahydroxylated . the most readily available cyclitol is myo - inositol but any of the other eight stereoisomeric forms , such as scyllo - inositol are believed to be quite suitable . among the sugars , sucrose and glucose are known to be very effective but many others should prove to be equally useful . sorbitol ( d - glucitol ), d - mannitol , and galactitol ( dulcitol ) are straight chain sugar alcohols suitable as osmoticants . other materials suitable as osmoticants may include glycol ethers such as poly ( ethylene glycol ) and poly ( propylene glycol ). the following schedule of treatments has been very successfully used for the growth of plantlets by somatic embryogenesis of loblolly pine ( pinus taeda ). explants were immature embryos dissected from seeds 4 to 5 weeks after fertilization . seeds were obtained from cones supplied by a weyerhaeuser company seed orchard located at washington , n . c . the cones were stored at 4 ° c . until used . immediately before removal of the immature embryos the seeds were sterilized using a modified method of gupta and durzan ( 1985 ). briefly , this involves an initial washing and detergent treatment followed by a first sterilization in 30 % h 2 o 2 and a second in diluted 10 % v / v household bleach . the additional hgcl 2 treatment used by gupta and durzan was not found to be necessary to ensure sterility . the explants were thoroughly washed with sterile distilled water after each treatment . sterile dissected embryos were placed on a solid bm 1 culture medium and held in an environment at 22 °- 25 ° c . with a 24 hour dark photoperiod for a time of 3 - 5 weeks . the length of time depended on the particular genotype being cultured . at the end of this time a white mucilagenous mass had formed in association with the original explants . this appears to be identical with that described by gupta and durzan ( 1987 ). microscopic examination revealed numerous early stage proembryos associated with the mass . these are generally characterized as having a long thin - walled suspensor associated with a small head generally having less than 10 individual cells , each with dense cytoplasm and large nuclei . early proembyros are illustrated in fig1 . osmolality of the induction medium may in some instances be as high as 200 mm / kg . normally it will be below 175 mm / kg and , more typically , about 160 mm / kg or even lower . the osmolality of the medium described above was 158 mm / kg . early stage proembryos removed from the masses generated in the induction stage were placed on a bm 2 medium . this differs from the induction medium in that the growth hormones ( both auxins and cytokinins ) were reduced fy a full order of magnitude . the temperature and photoperiod were again 22 °- 25 ° c . with 24 hours in the dark . osmolality of this medium will typically be similar to identical to that of the induction medium . in the present example it was identical . proembryos developed in this stage were similar in appearance to those from stage 1 and were subcultured every 12 - 15 days on bm 2 medium . early stage proembryos from either stage i or stage ii , preferably the latter , were placed on a bm 3 solid medium . this medium has the same growth hormone concentration as bm 2 , however , the osmoticant was raised to a much higher concentration . in this case the osmoticant , myo - inositol , was at a concentration of 10 , 000 mg / l or 1 % on a w / v basis . osmotic potential was measured as 240 mm / kg . temperature and photoperiod were the same as for stages i and ii . after 3 or 4 subcultures of about 12 - 15 days each , very robust late stage proembryos had formed . these are characterized by smooth embryonal heads generally having in the neighborhood of over 100 individual cells with multiple suspensors , as exemplified in fig2 . osmotic potential of the late proembryo development medium should usually fall within the range of about 200 - 400 mm / kg . most typically it should be in the neighborhood of about 1 . 5 times higher than that of the induction or multiplication media . alternatively , the stage ii proembryos could be cultured for late proembyro development in suspension in a liquid medium of similar composition to bm 3 but lacking the agar . in this case subcultures could be made every 7 - 8 days . it is preferred that early stage proembryos brought into stage iii culture should have a stage ii subculturing for rapid multiplication of the particular clone . however , on occasions where time may be of greater importance than quantity , early stage proembryos from stage i may be taken directly into stage iii . the late stage proembryos from stage iii culture were transferred to a solid bm 4 medium . this medium either lacks growth hormones entirely or has them present only at very low levels and has the same lower level of osmoticants as stages i and ii . however , abscisic acid ( 5 -( 1 - hydroxy - 2 , 6 , 6 - trimethyl - 4 - oxo - 2 - cyclohexene - 1 - yl )- 3 - methyl - 2 , 4 - pentadienoic acid ) had been included here as a necessary material for further development . the osmotic potential of this medium will generally be no greater than about 175 mm / kg . in the present case it was measured as 168 mm / kg . as before , development was carried out in complete darkness at a temperature of 22 °- 25 ° c . development time was 4 - 6 weeks after which elongated cotyledonary embryos 4 - 5 mm long were present . these appeared as represented in fig3 . cotyledonary embryos fromm stage iv were placed on solid bm 5 medium for germination . this is a basal medium lacking growth hormones which has been modified by reducing sucrose , myo - inositol and organic nitrogen . after about 6 - 8 weeks under environmental conditions of 23 °- 25 ° c . and a 16 hour light / 8 hour dark photoperiod the resulting plantlets were approximately 20 mm in length and had a well developed radicle and hypocotyl and green cotyledonary structure and epicotyl as shown in fig4 . because of the reduced carbohydrate concentration , the osmotic potential of the germination medium is further reduced below that of the development medium . it will normally be below about 150 mm / kg and was , in the present example , about 100 mm / kg . plantlets from stage v were removed from the culture medium and planted in a soil comprising equal parts of peat and fine perlite . to the present time , three distinct genotypes of pinus taeda have been successfully cultured through stage v . some of the plantlets have already been successfully transferred to soil and these are growing with good vigor . two additional genotypes are being multiplied in stage ii prior to stage iii treatment . in work that preceeded that just described , all five genotypes when cultured without the stage iii high osmoticant treatment ultimately browned and died in stage iv . stated differently , the method failed completely when early stage pinus taeda proembryos from stage ii were taken directly into stage iv , as is taught in the prior art . the critical secret of success of the present method lies in the early stage culturing of the early proembryos in a high osmoticant development medium . this is quite contrary to the accepted wisdom in the field of coniferous tissue culture where a raised osmoticant level was previously believed to be advantageous in the later stages of embryo development but was to be avoided in the early stages of culture . in the work to date myo - inositol has proved to be somewhat superior to other osmoticants for the development of healthy stage iii late proembryos . however , other polyhydroxylated materials have also given very satisfactory results . cultures were made as above except that in stage iii 10 , 000 mg / l of either mannitol or sorbitol , or 30 , 000 mg / l of additional sucrose , was added to the bm 2 maintenance medium instead of the additional 9000 mg / l of myo - inositol described earlier . osmolalities were measured as follows for the various stage iii media : myo - inositol -- 240 mm / kg ; mannitol -- 242 mm / kg ; sorbitol -- 238 mm / kg ; and sucrose -- 265 mm / kg . when stage ii early stage proembryos were cultured on any of the above high osmoticant media , robust late stage proembryos developed that later were successfully cultured to the cotyledonary embryo stage . it appears that most , if not all , sugars , hexitols , or cyclitols which can raise the osmotic potential to at least above 200 mm / kg will be satisfactory stage iii osmoticants . other water soluble polyhydroxylated materials may also be suitable . some coniferous species are relatively easier to propagate by somatic embryogenesis than others . coastel redwood , sequoia sempervirens , is considered be be a relatively easy species while norway spruce , picea abies , is usually thought to be of only moderate difficulty . most members of the genus pinus as well as douglas - fir , pseudotsuga menziesii , are regarded as very difficult . this has posed a major challenge to researchers since the latter two genera include a major percentage of the worlds most economically important timber species . even though past researchers have reported success with somatic embryogenesis of several pines and of douglas - fir , others in the field have frequently not been able to duplicate the work of these competent investigators . there are probably several reasons for this . most certainly , one of them is over optimism on the part of researchers who have achieved and reported early stage embryogenesis or embryo - like structures but who later have not been able to succeed in producing significant numbers of cotyledonary embryos or plantlets . another is the great differences in performance between different genotypes within a given species . picea abies is a case in point . as noted earlier it is usually regarded as a species of only moderate difficulty to reproduce by somatic embryogenesis using present state - of - the - art technology . however , there are some genotypes of picea abies that haven proven intractable to all previous efforts . most researchers have limited themselves to working with only one or two genotypes that are known from past experience to give good results . the present method , which employs a new high osmoticant stage iii - type treatment of early stage proembryos , has resulted in successful production of late stage proembryos and cotyledonary embryos on 23 of the 26 genotypes of picea abies that have been investigated to date . this sample includes a considerable number of previously intractable genotypes . as has been noted earlier , similar results have been obtained with pinus taeda , although not all genotypes have been processed to the later stages of treatment to the present time . excellent results have also been obtained with pseudotsuga menziesii where 16 of 22 genotypes have developed cotyledonary embryos . culturing on many of these genotypes is still in progress and has not advanced to the germination stage . however , to date plantlets from 5 genotypes have been transferred to soil resulting in at least 30 established plants . while the plant growth hormone usages noted in table 2 are near optimum for loblolly pine , different concentrations and mixtures may prove more suitable for other species . it is fairly well established that growth hormones are usually necessary in stages i - iii , although some workers have apparently achieved early stage proembyros using growth hormone - free media . however , even when initially cultured on hormone - free media , these early stage proembryos were then transferred to cultures having the usual growth hormones . these hormones may in some instances be a single auxin or a mixture of auxins with or without one or more cytokinins . as a general rule the total concentration of all growth hormones should be below about 250 μm / l , preferably below about 100 μm / l in the stage i medium . these concentrations should be reduced about tenfold in the stage ii and stage iii media . it should be recognized that there is not one single set of culturing conditions that will be suitable for achieving somatic embryogenesis of all species or for all genotypes within a species . tissue culture as a whole is a highly unpredictable science . this statement has even greater applicability to somatic embryogenesis . adjustments in the mineral and plant hormone constituents of the culture media must frequently be made depending on the particular species and genotype being cultured . this applies to each of the various stages of culturing from explants to plantlets . these adjustments are considered to be within the routine experimental capability of those skilled in the art of tissue culture . the new and critical discovery of the present invention is the use of a high osmoticant medium when culturing is still at the early proembryo stage . this has given results that are far superior in terms of success and consistency than any process reported heretofore . the process has been successfully applied to all of the several species and many genotypes of coniferous plants studied to date and appears to be of general use for all coniferous species . it will be understood that many variations can be made in the procedures described for the various culturing stages while still retaining the necessary and critical high osmoticant early treatment stage . it is the intention of the inventors that such variations should be included within the scope of their invention if found defined within the following claims . abo el - 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