Plant Tissue Cult. 12(2) : 109-116, 2002 (December)

Storage Protein Patterns in Somatic and Zygotic Embryos of Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.)

M. I. Hoque¹, Bustanur Rosidi and H. J. Jacobsen

LG Molekulargenetik, University of Hannover, Herrenhauser Str. 2, 30419 Hannover, Germany

Key words: Lens culinaris, Storage protein, Somatic embryo

Abastract

In a program aimed at developing a reproducible transformation-capable-regeneration system for lentil, only somatic embryo-like bodies (SEB) were obtained. In order to find out whether SEBs are true somatic embryos, storage protein patterns in somatic and zygotic lentil embryos were compared by SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis. As control, proteins from lentil leaves as well as zygotic embryos were investigated. As no lentil-specific antibodies were available, four different polyclonal antibodies against each of the major storage protein families in pea (legumin, vicilin, phaseolin and glycinin) were applied. The storage protein patterns found in zygotic embryos, were also found to occur in somatic embryos. No specific signals were observed in leaf extracts.

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