Somatic Embryogenesis in Araucaria angustifolia (Bert) O. Ktze

Effect of carbon source on morphology and histodifferentiation of Araucaria angustifolia embryogenic cultures

“…The embryogenic induction rates observed in the present work were higher than those observed in other conifer species such as Pinus taeda that presented a mean induction rate of 17.9% (Pullman et al, 2003). The data obtained in the present work confirmed previous results with A. angustifolia (Guerra et al, 2000;Santos et al, 2002 in which the pre-cotyledonary stage of developmental showed enhanced competence for embryogenic induction. These authors concluded that the competence for the induction of embryogenic culture was lost after the development of cotyledons.…”

“…This last species, native to Southern Brazil was severely logged during the last century. It presents a long life cycle their seeds are highly recalcitrant and the conventional methods for vegetative propagation are difficult to establish (Guerra et al, 2000). Conifers present zygotic polyembryogenesis restricted to the early stages of embryo development.…”

Somatic Embryogenesis in Parana Pine (Araucaria angustifolia (Bert.) O. Kuntze)

“…Previous studies in somatic embryogenesis of A. angustifolia were performed by Guerra & Kemper (1992). The induction, establishment and the multiplication of embryogenic cultures, as well the effects of abscisic acid and osmotic agents on the maturation of these cultures were reported by Astarita & Guerra (1998), Guerra et al (2000), and . However, did not obtain the development of mature somatic embryos.…”

“…During most part of the 20 th century, A. angustifolia was the most important woody species from South Brazil. Nowadays, only relicts with this species are found, representing from 1% (Lima & Capobianco, 1997) to about 2% (Guerra et al, 1999) of the original area. Therefore, it is necessary to development the technologies for conservation and genetic improvement of this subtropical conifer species.…”

Improved method for isolation of coupled mitochondria of Araucaria angustifolia (Bert.) O. Kuntze

“…O. Kuntze, known as "Paraná pine" or "Pinheiro do Paraná" is a conifer species belonging to the Araucariaceae family, which is widespread in southern Brazil, especially in the cold highlands of the States of Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul Zandavalli et al, 2004). Several studies have been carried out both with the callus and with tissues of A. angustifolia at different developmental stages of differentiation (Fonseca et al, 2000;Guerra et al, 2000), including the extraction of flavones from the latter, but mitochondria of A. angustifolia have never been isolated before. In contrast to mammals, the respiratory chain in plant mitochondria has been shown to possess at least four alternative rotenoneinsensitive NAD(P)H dehydrogenases in the inner mitochondrial membrane for transferring electrons to ubiquinone (Melo et al, 1996;Møller, 2001).…”