Formation of somatic embryos from immature seeds of sorghum bicolor sorghum variety CIAP 132-R

Several protocols of plant regeneration via somatic embryogenesis from Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench have been development, however the percentage of calluses with embryogenic structures and plant regeneration are low. Therefore this study aimed to generate somatic embryos in red sorghum variety CIAP 132-R. Different concentrations of 2,4-D for callus formation, and three concentrations of ascorbic acid to remove phenolics exudation were assayed by explant. For the formation of embryos different concentrations of 2,4-D and 6-BAP were evaluated. The highest percentage of callus formation (57.5 %) was achieved with 18.1 μM 2,4-D. With the addition to the culture medium of 50.0 mg.l-1 of ascorbic acid was possible to eliminate the phenolic compounds in the explant and in the culture medium; also it allows increasing the percentage of calluses with embryogenic structures up to 95 %. The highest number of somatic embryos per callus was achieved with a reduction in the culture medium of 2,4-D to 4.52 μM in combination with 2.22 μM 6-BAP. For the first time, the efficiency of somatic embryo formation was obtained from the freshly germinated sprouts of immature seeds as initial explant CIAP 132-R.