Capacity for Somatic Embryogenesis in Different Pea Cultivars

Using the method described by GRIGA (1998), embryoids were obtained (through direct or indirect somatic embryogenesis) in cultures of shoot apical meristems of the following pea cultivars: Bankier, Dino, Hazard, Ilowiecki, Konserwowy IHAR, Kosynier, Makler, Oskar, Pegaz, as well as unregistered line HM-6. With cultivars Izolda and Lantra the efforts at somatic embryogenesis (SE) induction remained unsuccessful. The highest responsiveness to SE induction was observed (after 14 days of treatment with a relatively low concentration of picloram – 2.5 μM) in cultivars Oskar, Hazard and line HM-6, in which embryoids were formed with frequencies of 31, 15.9 and 12.5%, respectively. Increasing picloram level to 5 μM and extending period of induction to 28 days, it was possible to obtain SE efficiency above 10% in cultivars Konserwowy IHAR, Dino and Kosynier. Photoperiod affected SE efficiency and the degree and direction of this influence greatly depended on pea cultivar.