Gibberellic Acid and Indole 3 Butyric Acid Regulation of Maturation and Accumulation of Storage Proteins (56, 34 and 26 KD) in Somatic Embryos of Santalum album L.

The ontogenetic path followed by somatic embryogenesis of Santalum album L. is extremely dependant on media concentrations of Gibberellic Acid (GA3), Indole 3 Butyric Acid (IBA) and 6-Benzyl Amino Purine (BAP). Initially callus was induced from nodes by using 1-Naphthyl Acetic Acid (NAA), 5.36 micro molar (M). Aiming at embryogenesis, callus (200 mg) was incubated on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with NAA 5.36 M + BAP 2.21 M and found to produce a range of embryos types, globular, heart and premature torpedo embryos. We noted that after four weeks of culture on the same medium, premature torpedo embryos started to germinate precociously with anomalies. This problem was overcome by cultivating premature embryos on MS medium fortified with GA3 (1.44 M) + IBA (2.46 M) and BAP (2.21 M). The premature embryos in low concentration of GA3, IBA and BAP supplemented medium were found to enter into short period of quiescent stage and precocious embryo germination is completely restricted and gradually gets matured and germinated. An important metabolic event we first time noted that regulation and accumulation of three storage proteins such as 56, 34 and 26 KD found in mature somatic embryos under IBA, GA3 supplemented medium. These storage proteins are essential for embryo maturation and germination. If, embryos are lacking of these proteins, embryos could not attain maturity and found to be abortive or precocious germination with anomalies.