© 1993 Heron Publishing—Victoria, Canada
Polyamines in embryogenic cultures of Norway spruce (Picea abies) and red spruce (Picea rubens)
Rakesh Minocha (1), Haarald Kvaalen (2), Subhash C. Minocha (3) and Stephanie Long (3)
1. USDA Forest Service, NEFES, P. O. Box 640, Durham, NH 03824-0640, USA / 2. Norwegian Forest Research Institute, Hoyskolev 12, 1432 Ås-NLH, Norway / 3. Department of Plant Biology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA / Received March 19, 1993
Summary
Embryogenic cultures of red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) were initiated from dissected mature zygotic embryos. The tissues were grown on either proliferation medium
or maturation medium. On proliferation medium, the embryogenic tissue continued to produce early stage somatic embryos (organized
meristems attached to elongated, suspensor-like cells), whereas on maturation medium fully mature embryos developed from the
embryonic tissue. Analysis of polyamines in tissues grown on these two media showed that: (1) both putrescine and spermidine
concentrations were always higher in cultures grown on proliferation medium than in cultures grown on maturation medium; (2)
in both species, spermidine concentrations declined with time in the tissues grown on maturation medium; and (3) spermine
was present in only minute quantities and showed only a small change with time. The presence of difluoromethylornithine in
the culture medium had little effect on polyamine concentration, whereas the presence of difluoromethylarginine caused a decrease
in putrescine concentrations in both red spruce and Norway spruce tissues grown on proliferation medium or maturation medium.
Keywords:
abscisic acid, difluoromethylarginine, difluoromethylornithine, maturation, putrescine, somatic embryogenesis, spermidine,
spermine.
