Esterase isozyme patterns in developing plant regeneration from calli of Citrus junos Sieb.

The callus from the hypocotyl region of immature embryo of Citrus junos Sieb. was efficiently induced in the } MS medium containing 454M BA after 8 weeks culture. The callus was developed into the two callus type, embryogenic callus and nonembryogenic callus, which can be distinguished by visual examination depending on color and appearence. In vitro regeneration of callus established efficiently in the hormone-free MS medium from the embryogenic callus. In order to investigate the physiological changes depending on the developmental stage of embryo, the embryo was formed in the MS medium. The embryogenic and nonembryogenic callus, and the various stages of the somatic embryo were examimed the changes of esterase activity, and their isozyme patterns as well. The protein content and esterase activities was gradually increased on the developmental stages of embryo. Total protein pattern were different by the SDS-PAGE and were appeared strong band of 23 KD in the torpedo stage. The pattern of the esterase isozyme was exhibited a difference between embryogenic callus and nonembryogenic callus. It was appered pl 6.0, 8.0, 8.2 in the embryogenic callus. Also the new band of pl 4.75 was appeared in the cotyledon. These results suggest that the changes of esterase activities and isozyme patterns are importent factor in the differentiation and development of citrus.