Abstract
Avocado is a species widely cultivated for its highly nutritious fruit. Currently, soil-borne diseases such as Phytophthora root rot are severe threats for commercial plantings and breeding programmes by conventional means to select genotypes tolerant to this disease are under way in different countries. Use of biotechnological tools would be very useful for improvement of this crop. Somatic embryogenesis could be used to generate variability in vitro as well as for genetic transformation. At present, somatic embryos can be obtained by culturing immature zygotic embryos in Murashige and Skoog's (MS) medium supplemented with 0.1 mg l−1 picloram. Proliferation of embryogenic cultures can take place under the same conditions used for culture initiation; however, development of white-opaque somatic embryos requires cultivation of previously synchronized globular-stage embryos in a B5 formulation based medium solidified with agar at 10 g l−1. Conversion of these embryos takes place at a 10–20% rate in MS medium at half strength with a 0.5 mg l−1 benzylaminopurine supplement. Somatic embryos from adult explants have occasionally been obtained; however, methods are needed to improve the induction process as well as to properly mature the resulting embryos, before somatic embryogenesis can be widely used in avocado breeding programmes.
Access provided by Autonomous University of Puebla. Download to read the full chapter text
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
References
Ammirato PV (1987) Organizational events during somatic embryogenesis. In: Green CD, Somer DA, Hackett WP, Biesboer DD (eds) Plant tissue and cell culture. Liss, New York, pp 57–81
Barceló-Muñoz A, Pliego-Alfaro F, Barea JM (1990) Micropropagación de aguacate (Persea americana Mill) en fase juvenil. Actas de Horticultura 1:503–506
Bergh BO (1969) Avocado (Persea americana Miller). In: Ferwerda FP, Witt F (eds) Outlines of perennial crop breeding in the tropics. Miscellaneous papers no 4. Landbouwhogeschool (Agricultural University), Wageningen, pp 23–51
Bergh BO (1975) Avocados. In: Janick J, Moore JN (eds) Advances in fruit breeding. Purdue University Press, West Lafayette, p 541–567
Bergh BO (2000) Persea americana. In: Halevy AH (ed) Handbook of flowering, vol 5. CRC, Boca Raton, pp 253–268
Cailloux F, Julien-Guerrier J, Linossier L, Coudret A (1996) Long-term somatic embryogenesis and maturation of somatic embryos in Hevea brasiliensis. Plant Sci 120:185–196
Gamborg OL, Muller RA, Ojima K (1968) Nutrient requirements of suspension cultures of soybean root cells. Exp Cell Res 50:151–158
Gómez-Lim MA, Litz RE (2004) Genetic transformation of perennial tropical fruits. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Plant 40:442–449
Kopp LE (1966) A taxonomic revision of the genus Persea in the western hemisphere (Persea-Lauraceae). Mem NY Bot Gard 14:1–120
Litz RE, Witjaksono, Raharjo S, Efendi D, Pliego-Alfaro F, Barceló-Muñoz A (2005) Persea americana Avocado. In: Litz RE (ed) Biotechnology of fruit and nut crops. Biotechnology in agriculture series, no 29. CABI, Wallingford, pp 326–347
Márquez-Martín B, Sánchez-Romero C, Barceló-Muñoz A, Pliego-Alfaro F (2001) Efecto del agente gelificante sobre el desarrollo de embriones somáticos de aguacate. Abstracts book. IV Reunión de la Sociedad Española de Cultivo in vitro de Tejidos Vegetales, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, p 29
Márquez-Martín B, Sánchez-Romero C, Perán-Quesada R, Barceló-Muñoz A, Pliego-Alfaro F (2003) Efecto del tipo de callo, tiempo de precultivo en suspensión y densidad de inóculo en el desarrollo de embriones somáticos de aguacate (Persea americana Mill.). Abstracts book. V Reunión de la Sociedad Española de Cultivo in vitro de Tejidos Vegetales, Pamplona, Spain, p 13
Mooney PA, Van Staden J (1987) Induction of embryogenesis in callus from immature embryos of Persea americana. Can J Bot 65:622–626
Murashige T, Skoog F (1962) A revised medium for rapid growth and bioassays with tobacco tissue cultures. Physiol Plant 15:473–497
Perán-Quesada R (2001) Embriogénesis in vitro de aguacate (Persea americana Mill.). PhD thesis, University of Málaga, Spain
Perán-Quesada R, Sánchez-Romero C, Barceló-Muñoz A, Simón-Pérez E, Pliego-Alfaro F (2000) Somatic embryogenesis in different avocado (Persea americana Mill) cultivars. In: Ríordáin FO (ed) Development of integrated systems for large-scale propagation of elite plants using in vitro techniques (EUR 19237-COST action 822). Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, p 125
Perán-Quesada R, Sánchez-Romero C, Barceló-Muñoz A, Pliego-Alfaro F (2004) Factors affecting maturation of avocado somatic embryos. Sci Hortic 102:61–73
Perán-Quesada R, Sánchez-Romero C, Pliego-Alfaro F, Barceló-Muñoz A (2005) Histological aspects of avocado embryo development and effect of developmental stages on germination. Seed Sci Res 15:125–132
Pliego-Alfaro F, Murashige T (1988) Somatic embryogenesis in avocado (Persea americana Mill.) in vitro. Plant Cell Tissue Org Cult 12:61–66
Pliego-Alfaro F (1981) A morphogenetic study of the avocado (Persea americana, Mill.) in vitro. I. Development of a rooting bioassay and its application to studying restoration by grafting of rooting competence in adult shoots. II. Somatic embryogenesis in callus. PhD thesis, University of California
Popenoe W (1934) Early history of the avocado. Calif Avocado Assoc Ybk 106–110
Raharjo S, Litz RE (2003) Rescue of genetically engineered avocado by micrografting. Proceedings V congreso mundial del aguacate, vol 2, Málaga, Spain, pp 119-122
Raviv A, Avenido RA, Tisalona LF, Damasco OP, Mendoza EMT, Pinkas Y, Zilkah S (1998) Callus and somatic embryogenesis of Persea species. Plant Tissue Cult Biotech 4:196–206
Ray PK (2002) Breeding tropical and subtropical fruits. Springer, Berlin
Rohwer JG (1993) Lauraceae. In: Kubitzi K, Rohwer JG, Bittrich V (eds) The families and genera of vascular plants. II. Flowering plants, dicotyledons. Springer, Berlin, pp 366–391
Sánchez-Romero C, Perán-Quesada R, Barceló-Muñoz A, Pliego-Alfaro F (2002) Variations in storage protein and carbohydrate levels during development of avocado zygotic embryos. Plant Physiol Biochem 40:1043–1049
Sánchez-Romero C, Perán-Quesada R, Márquez-Martín B, Barceló-Muñoz A, Pliego-Alfaro F (2003) Efecto de la desecación parcial sobre la germinación de embriones zigóticos inmaduros de aguacate. Proceedings V congreso mundial del aguacate, vol 1, Málaga, Spain, pp 83–87
Skene KGM, Barlass M (1983) In vitro culture of abscissed immature avocado embryos. Ann Bot 52:667–672
Vidales-Fernández I, Salgado-Garciglia R, Gómez-Lim MA, Angel-Palomares E, Guillén-Andrade H (2003) Embriogénesis somática de aguacate (Persea americana Mill. cv. Hass). Proceedings V Congreso Mundial del Aguacate, vol 1, Málaga, Spain, pp 89–95
Von Arnold S, Sabala I, Bozhkov P, Dyachok J, Filonova L (2002) Developmental pathways of somatic embryogenesis. Plant Cell Tissue Org Cult 69:233–249
Wetzstein HY, Jeyaretnam BS, Vendrame WA, Rodriguez APM (2000) Somatic embryogenesis in pecan (Carya illinoinensis). In: Jain SM, Gupta PK, Newton RJ (eds) Somatic embryogenesis in woody plants, vol 6. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 391–414
Whiley AW (1992) Persea americana Miller. In: Verheij EWM, Coronel RE (eds) Plant resources of South-East Asia. No 2. Edible fruits and nuts. Pudoc DLO, Wageningen, pp 249–254
Witjaksono (1997) Development of protocols for avocado tissue culture: somatic embryogenesis, protoplast culture, shoot proliferation and protoplast fusion. PhD thesis, University of Florida
Witjaksono, Litz RE (1999a) Induction and growth characteristics of embryogenic avocado cultures. Plant Cell Tissue Org Cult 58:19–29
Witjaksono, Litz RE (1999b) Maturation of avocado somatic embryos and plant recovery. Plant Cell Tissue Org Cult 58:141–148
Witjaksono, Litz RE (2004) Effect of gamma irradiation on embryogenic avocado cultures and somatic embryo development. Plant Cell Tissue Org Cult 77:139–147
Witjaksono, Litz RE, Pliego-Alfaro (1999) Somatic embryogenesis of avocado (Persea americana Mill.). In: Jain SM, Gupta PK, Newton RJ (eds) Somatic embryogenesis in woody plants, vol 5. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 197-214
Zilberstaine M, Ben-Ya'ácov A (1999) Integration of strategies for controlling root-rot in avocado in Israel. Rev Chapingo Ser Hortic 5:251–253
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Rights and permissions
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sánchez-Romero, C., Márquez-Martín, B., Pliego-Alfaro, F. Somatic and Zygotic Embryogenesis in Avocado. In: Mujib, A., Šamaj, J. (eds) Somatic Embryogenesis. Plant Cell Monographs, vol 2. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/7089_026
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/7089_026
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-28717-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-28733-9
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)