This document discusses embryo culture and embryo rescue techniques. It begins by defining an embryo and explaining that embryo culture involves growing plant embryos in artificial media to enhance survival. Embryo rescue involves culturing immature embryos to prevent abortion, especially for interspecific or intergeneric hybrids where endosperm development fails. The key steps of embryo culture include excising embryos, placing them in sterile media with suitable temperature, light and nutrients, and transferring viable plantlets to soil. Embryo culture has applications in shortening breeding cycles, overcoming dormancy, producing sterile seeds, and rescuing distant hybrids.

1. 1. Media preparation
2. Explant selection
3. Establishment of explant in media
4. Callus development
5. Plantlet development
6. Hardening or acclimatization
7. Open field planting
Lecture 10: Embryo culture and embryo rescue technique
Course Code : HRT 552
Course Title : BIOTECHNOLOGY OF
HORTICULTURAL CROPs

2. Introduction to Tissue Culture
⚫Tissue Culture (also known as Micropropagation or In vitro culture) is:
⚫The growing of plant cells, tissues, organs, seeds or other plant parts in
a sterile environment on a nutrient medium.

3. 2) Explant:-
Totipotent somatic cell are used.
Immature inflorescence and Scutellar tissue of
immature seeds are used for the research. Ex:-
Triticum aestivum .
Epidermis, Procambial tissue are also produced
somatic embryo.

4. What is embryo?
• A seed plant embryo is part of a seed, consisting of precursor tissues for the
leaves, stem and root as well as one or more cotyledons.
• The young sporophyte of a seed plant usually comprising a rudimentary
plant with plumule, radicle, and cotyledons

5. 5

7. Embryo culture
• Embryo culture similarly can mean the growth of any species, during its
embryonic stage, in an artificial medium in order to enhance its likelihood of
survival.
• Embryo culture can also mean the use of an artificial medium for embryonic
growth during in vitro fertilization, which can last two to five days, after which
the embryo is transplanted into a surrogate mother.

8. Embryo Rescue:
• Embryo rescue is one of the earliest and successful forms of in-vitro culture
techniques that is used to assist in the development of plant embryos that might
not survive to become viable plants.
• Embryo rescue plays an important role in modern plant breeding and
ornamental plant crop hybrids.
• The most widely used embryo rescue procedure is referred to as embryo culture, and
involves excising plant embryos and placing them onto media culture

10. How can we do embryo culture?
• For embryo culture, embryos are excised from immature seeds and introduce in a
medium.
• Providing aseptic and sterile area.

11. • The culture plates or culture tubes with excised embryos are transferred to a
culture room maintained at a suitable:
 Temperature.
 Photoperiod.
 Humidity.
 The frequency of excised embryos that gives rise to seedlings generally varies
greatly.

12. • The hybrids raised through culture have been utilized for:
• Phylogenetic studies.
• Genome analysis. Transfer of useful agronomic traits from wild genera to the
cultivated crops.
• To raise synthetic crops.

14.  TYPES OF EMBRYO CULTURE
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1. Mature Embryo Culture:
Mature embryos are isolated from
ripe seeds and cultured in vitro.
Mature embryo cultures are carried
out in the following conditions:
i. When the embryos remain dormant for
long periods.
ii. Low survival of embryos in vivo.
iii. To avoid inhibition in the seed for
germination.
iv. For converting sterile seeds to viable
seedlings.

15. • Seed dormancy in plant species is a common occurrence.
• This may be due to chemical inhibitors or mechanical resistance exerted by the structures covering the
embryo.
• Seed dormancy can be successfully bypassed by culturing the embryos in vitro.
• Embryo culture is relatively easy as they can be grown on a simple inorganic medium supplemented with
energy source (usually sucrose).
• This is possible since the mature embryos excised from the developing seeds are autotrophic in nature.

17. Embryo culture:
• Embryo:
A mature zygote of animals while Fertile part of seeds in plants
Embryo Rescue:
• Embryo rescue is the process when plant breeders rescue inherently weak, immature
or hybrid embryos to prevent degeneration.
• Common in lily hybridizing to create new interspecific hybrids between the various
lily groups (such as Asiatic, Oriental, Trumpet, etc).

18. Embryo culture
• Embryo culture.
• Artificial growth of individual during embryonic stage is known as embryo culture
• In vitro technique
• Embryo rescue
• Embryo rescue is synonym of embryo culture
• It is also in vitro preservation and culturing of embryo.

19. Purpose of embryo culture /rescue
• To overcome seed dormancy & immaturity
• To enhance breeding
• To rescue genotypes (preservation).
• To avoid abortion
• Crop improvement
• Cryopreservation (Cryo conservation).

20. Stages Of Culture:

22. 2. Embryo Rescue:
• Embryo rescue involves the culture of immature embryos to rescue them from unripe or hybrid seeds
which fail to germinate.
• This approach is very useful to avoid embryo abortion and produce a viable plant.
• Wild hybridization involving crossing of two different species of plants from the same genus or different
genera often results in failure.
• This is mainly because the normal development of zygote and seed is hindered due to genetic barriers.
• Consequently, hybrid endosperm fails to develop leading the abortion of hybrid embryo.
• The endosperm may also produce toxins that ultimately kill the embryo.
• In the normal circumstances, endosperm first develops and supports embryo development nutritionally.
Thus, majority of embryo abortions are due to failure in endosperm development.
• Embryo abortion can be avoided by isolating and culturing the hybrid embryos prior to abortion.
• The most important application of embryo rescue is the production of interspecific and inter-generic
hybrids from wild plant species.

27. Advantages of Embryo Culture:
• Recovery of distant hybrids.
• Recovery of haploid plants from Interspecific crosses.
• Propagation of orchids.
• Shortening the breeding cycle
• Overcoming dormancy.
• In addition ovule and ovary can also be cultured

28. Importance Of Embryo Rescue And Embryo Culture
 This technique is used to develop plants that are viable.
 Embryo rescue plays an important role in modern plant breeding.
 Allowing the development of many interspecific and intergeneric food and
ornamental plant crop hybrids.
 This technique nurtures the immature or weak embryo, thus allowing it the chance to
survive.

29.  Tissue culture techniques in combination with molecular techniques have been
successfully used to incorporate specific traits through gene transfer
 In vitro techniques for the culture of protoplasts, embryos have been used to create
new genetic variations in the breeding line.

30. Factors
Embryo are manually excised and placed immediately onto a culture media that provides
proper nutrients to support survival and growth:
Time of culture.
Composition of the medium.
 Two main types of basal media are the most commonly used for embryo rescue
studies, i.e. Murashige and Skoog medium (MS) and Gamborg’s B-5 media (Bridgen,
1994)
 The composition of the media will vary in terms of the concentrations of media
supplements required this will generally depend on the stage of development of the
embryo

31.  Young embryos would require a complex medium with high
sucrose concentrations, while more mature embryos can usually
develop on a simple medium with low levels of sucrose.
Temperature and light:
The temperature and light requirement is generally species specific
and thus its usually regulated to be the within the same temperature
requirement as that of its parent with embryos of cool-season crops
requiring lower temperatures than those of warm-season crops.

32. • Embryos sometimes grow best when maintained in darkness for the first 1 to 2
weeks of culture and then transferred to light to allow chlorophyll formation.
• The optimum temperature depends on plant species, but normally a high
range of 25 to 30oC is used.
• The growth conditions of the mother plant are also a consideration in
embryo culture. The endosperm and the cotyledons will develop more if
the mother plant is grown under well-controlled conditions; embryo growth
will consequently be promoted.

33. Techniques & Handling:
• Embryos are located in the sterile environment of the ovule and surface
sterilization of embryos is not necessary.
• Embryos are removed aseptically from the surrounding tissues.
• Embryo is often well-protected by surrounding tissues, harsh procedures may be
used in surface disinfection.
• Direct disinfection of embryos is needed if seedcoats are cracked or if endophytic
pathogens exist inside the seedcoats, as with fescue (Festuca spp. L.), corn (Zea
mays L.), and dogwood

34. Techniques & Handling:
• Small embryos require the use of micro dissecting tools and a
dissecting microscope to excise without injury.
• The process of excising immature embryos varies with species.
• However, many times an incision can be made at the micropylar end
of the young ovule and pressure applied at the opposite end to
force the embryo out through the opening.

35. Techniques & Handling:
• When heart-stage and younger embryos are excised, it is important to keep
the suspensors intact.
• The nutritional requirements of young embryos vary greatly and the chances of
damaging the embryos are great. In such situations, it may be possible to rescue
embryos by ovary or ovule culture methods.
• Ovaries are excised after pollination and the calyx, corolla, and stamens are
removed.

36. Applications:
• Embryo culture is now days used in alot of fields such as agriculture ,Industry etc .
• Its use is made more specific in the area of agriculture
foccussing mostly on plant tissue culture.
• Embryo culture is being routinely used in some crop improvement programmes.

37. Applications:
• Shortening breeding cycles and ovecomming dormancy thus reducing the time
for the next generations which may be grown two or three weeks earlier by
embryo culture than from seeds.
• Example of Iris whose breeding cycle is shortened to less than one year from two
years through this .

38. Applications:
• Seed sterility is another problem faced in the field of crop production .
• Early ripening fruit cultivars have seeds that donot germinate
as embryo is immature.
• Thus using this seedlings are raised from sterile seeds and the embryos are
recovered.

39. Applications:
• Production of Monoploids helps in achieving the desired trait in less time as normally
several generations of testing required before desired trait achieved in selective breeding
• Plants derived from tissue culture techniques are monoploid and can be treated with
chemicals to double chromosome number.

40. Applications:
• Micropropagation is done to rapidly produce large number of progeny plants by
multiplying stock plant material .
• This is done to achieve virus free stock .
• To multiply plants whose multiplication rate is too slow .
• For germplasm conservation
• For genetic transformations

47. Thank you 