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ESTIMATIONS ON SOMATIC EMBRYOGENESIS AND THE SYNTHETIC SEED

TECHNOLOGY IN ALFALFA SEED PRODUCTION

E. Piccioni¹, A. Standardi¹ and M. Falcinelli²

¹Dipartimento di Arboricoltura e Protezione delle Piante

²Istituto di Miglioramento Genetico Vegetale

University of Perugia - Borgo XX Giugno, 74, 061 00 Perugia - ITALY.

E-mail asep@unipg.it

A brief insight to possibilities, limitations and bottlenecks of the synthetic seed technology with regard to herbage seed production is reported.  Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is used as a model species for its rich bibliography, established regeneration protocol and the deep investigations conducted on all aspects of regeneration.  Particular focus is given to the questionably-true-to-type genetic stability of somatic embryogenesis and to the difficulties in achieving sufficient conversion from embryogenic synthetic seeds.  A few hints to the possible actual uses of the embryogenetic synthetic seed technology are also given.

Keywords: Synseed; embryo encapsulation; Medicago sativa.