Somatic Embryogenesis and Plant Regeneration with Embryogenic Tissue Lines in Pinus densiflora

This experiment was conducted to evaluate growth rate among 15 embryogenic tissue lines (ETLs), comparison of maturation on somatic embryos (SEs) with 13 ETLs and efficiency with various concentrations of gelrite on SEs germination in Japanese red pine (Pinus densiflora). In comparison of ETLs growth rate (folds) with 15 lines, the 05-4 line (5.3 folds) showed the highest rate, on the other hand, the lowest one was recorded in the line of 05-37 (1.4 folds). The 13 ETLs were tested for the extent of SEs production. The best production was recorded in the line of 05-4 (39.8/90 mg F.W.). However, most of ETLs, except 5 lines (05-4, 12, 21, 29 and 37), did not produce SEs at all, therefore, big differences in the ability of SEs production existed among the ETLs tested. Effects of various gelrite concentrations for SEs germination with 3 ETLs were also compared. The highest result was obtained from 0.2% gelrite concentration with 05-4 line (47.3%), there was a inclination that the rate of germination was gradually declined over 0.2% gelrite concentration with the 05-4 and 29 lines. respectively. In contrast, in the line of 05-37, no SEs germination occurred on medium with 0.1 or 0.2% gelrite. In conclusion, the growth rate, SEs production and germination frequency were appeared to deeply depended on the ETLs.