SOMATIC EMBRYOGENESIS AND PLANT-REGENERATION FROM SEEDLING CULTURES OF TOMATO (LYCOPERSICON-ESCULENTUM MILL)

Somatic embryogenesis was induced in several cultivars of tomato (Lyco persicon esculentum Mill.) using a simple, one-step method. Seeds were germinated in the presence of 50 or 80 mu mol . L(-1) N-6-benzylamino purine, and the resultant seedlings were maintained for six weeks on t he same medium. Somatic embryogenesis occurred directly without an int ervening callus proliferation phase from the meristematic centres form ed in the subepidermal region of the nodular tissues developed at the basal ends of induced seedlings. Regenerated somatic embryos were succ essfully grown into whole plants.