Deleterious effect of minimal enzymatic treatments on the development of isolated maize embryo sacs in culture

The long-term viability of isolated embryo sacs was studied in maize. Fertilised embryo sacs were digested in order to remove most of the nucellus cells present on their surfaces and then transferred to culture. Experiments on 161 embryo sacs showed that isolation treatments using even minimal enzymatic digestion affected the further development of the embryo sacs. Few embryo sacs survived in culture and those produced only abnormal embryos; they produced no plants. We concluded that embryo sacs isolated through enzymatic digestion may offer limited prospects for long-term studies where normal embryogenic development is required. Alternative strategies are discussed for maize.