AUTOMATED, IN-VITRO HARVEST OF SOMATIC EMBRYOS

This work has demonstrated the aseptic, automated harvest of somatic e mbryos from a bioreactor suspension culture. Machine vision, emulating the selection criteria of an experienced biologist, classified embryo s as harvestable or non-harvestable as they flowed through a 3 mm glas s conduit. Embryos classified as harvestable were separated in a seale d harvest chamber. The system harvested 60% of the embryos at a rate o f 2.4 embryos/h and incorrectly harvested less than 1% of the non-harv est objects. The low harvest rate precludes the applicability of this technique to research and commercial tissue culture laboratories. The suspension feed-rate, culture population density and culture homogenei ty were identified as the most important factors influencing embryo ha rvest rate. The performance of this technique on more densely populate d cultures was projected using anticipated improvements in suspension feedrate. It was concluded that, under the conditions of this analysis , the harvester would be of limited value in a commercial propagation environment but could be beneficial to many research labs working with plant somatic embryos.