Effect of Ovular Tissue on the Development of Capsella Embryos Cultivated in vitro

Summary Capsella embryos growing singly, i.e. in the absence of maternal tissue, in a culture medium (modified Murashige and Skoog's solution), or in ovules cultivated in vitro or in situ are compared regarding their development in order to determine the role played by the ovular tissue. Their growth was determined by measuring the embryo length, the percentage of growth was calculated by the ratio: increase of length/initial length and the level of differentiation was appreciated by the ratio: length/width. The embryos growing singly or in ovules cultivated in vitro show both a lower growth and a delayed differentiation compared to in situ embryos. The embryos in ovules cultivated in vitro have a better growth than that of embryos inoculated singly but they do not have better differentiation. Although the ovular tissue is able to induce a growth and survival rate more similar to the in vivo embryos, in vitro ovular tissue does not have the same effect on differentiation.