COMPUTER VISION ANALYSIS OF SOMATIC EMBRYOS OF SWEET-POTATO [IPOMOEA-BATATAS (L.) LAM.] FOR ASSESSING THEIR ABILITY TO CONVERT TO PLANTS

Apical and axial shoot tips of sweet potato were cultured to produce s omatic embryos that mature and develop into plants in basal nutrient m edium. However, the lack of high regeneration efficiency is an impedim ent to the use of somatic embryos to produce synthetic seeds. Conversi on experiments with mature embryos over a 20-day period revealed that 80-90% of the embryos formed roots but only 40-50% formed shoots. Usin g computer vision and canonical or Fisher discriminant function (CDA) analysis along with conversion results, it was possible to correctly c lassify competent embryos 40-50% of the time based on size features, 5 0-60% of the time based on shape features, and 55-60% of the time base d on color features. Non-competent embryos were correctly classified 6 5-75%, 55-60%, and 70-75% of the time based on size, shape, and color, respectively. These results can be used effectively to identify and s elect competent embryos for improved regeneration efficiency.