Induction of somatic embryos from cultures of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Agave vera-cruz</Emphasis> Mill.

Somatic embryogenesis from cultures of shoot apices, cotyledon and young leaves of in vitro shoots of Agave vera-cruz Mill. was studied. Embryogenic callus was obtained when explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog’s (MS) medium (1962) supplemented with L₂ vitamins, 4.52 μM 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-d) or 5.37 μM ∝-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA). Somatic embryos differentiated from this embryogenic callus upon subculture to maturation/conversion medium containing cytokinin either alone or with auxin and l-glutamine. The best combination of growth regulators for development of somatic embryos was found to be 5.37 μM naphthalene acetic acid plus 0.91 μM zeatin and 40 g/l sucrose. The conversion frequency of somatic embryos to plantlets varied from 46–50%. Rooted plantlets were transferred directly to pots containing a soil, sand, and manure mixture without any hardening phase with 96–98% survival of the plantlets. Based on the histological observations, the potential origin of the somatic embryo is discussed.