Effects of various nitrogen sources on synchronization of tomato somatic embryogenesis during induction and realization phases

Tissue culture through somatic embryogenesis is one of the methods found most useful in the plants’ breeding process. A key issue to deal with during somatic evolution is its synchronization. Nitrogen has been known to play an important role here. Therefore, we evaluated the tomato explant embryogenesis cultured on B5 basal medium, subject to oxidized, reduced and organic nitrogen. Two separate experiments were conducted consisting of eight treatments with four replications each, using completely randomized design. In the experiment in which treatments were applied during the induction phase, maximum synchrony, based on relative number of torpedo embryo to all formed embryos, was obtained using nitrate as the sole nitrogen source (0.81). However, in the case in which treatments were applied during the realization phase, maximum synchrony was obtained through the combined nitrate and casein hydrolysate (0.51). Furthermore, in both experiments the highest number of somatic embryos was obtained in the standard B5 medium (91.58 in the first experiment and 59.19 in the second experiment).