Production of synthetic seed by desiccation and encapsulation

Abstract

Producing synthetic seed of carrot consists of coating in-vitro grown embryos with a synthetic seed coat such as Polyox WSR-N 750, drying under controlled conditions, and hardening to prevent precocious germination. Survival of such embryos declines over time. Similar procedures have also been used with celery. Somatic embryos have several advantages compared to conventional tissue culture which include proliferacy, singulation, and the development of bipolar structures. The factors which most limit the use of synthetic seeds are the inability to use such procedures with economically important genotypes, lack of understanding of the maturation of somatic embryos and poor conversion rates to greenhouse and/or field.