Caulogenic callus induction and adventitious bud formation from embryos of long-term stored seeds ofPicea jezoensis

Caulogenic calli with a high differentiation potency were induced from mature embryos ofPicea jezoensis seeds stored over a long time, for 29 years, resulting in the active formation of adventitious buds. Embryos began to induce calli within 3 weeks of cultivating on LP medium containing 3 μM BAP and 1 μM 2,4-D. Then, the calli proliferated and transformed into caulogenic calli with bud primordia in 8 weeks. The caulogenic calli increased actively with the addition of 500 mg/l ofl-glutamine in the medium. Furthermore, caulogenic calli, induced on LP medium containingl-glutamine, resulted in the formation of adventitious buds, which elongated after transferring the calli into LP medium with 0.1 μM BAP, but withoutl-glutamine. It appears that the number of adventitious buds and the process of shoot elongation are influenced by the kind of nitrogen contained in the medium for callus induction. A part of this study was presented at the 107th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Forestry Society (1996).