Isolation of putative embryo - specifie embryos genesusing stress induction of carrot somatic

bryogenesis is usefu1 for isolating genes expressed during embryogenesis, as embryegenic competence and the expressien of certain embryo-specific genes increases with increased stress. Fluorescent differential display (FDD) was perfonmed to isolate stress-induced genes in carrot somatic embryos, and five genes were isolated as embryonic tissue-specific genes. One ofthese genes was expressed until the garly torpedo-shaped stage of zygotic embryogenesis. This result suggested that in the stress-induction system of carrot somatic embryos, embryo-specific genes expressed in the early stages of embryogenesis were induced during somatic embryo induction by stress treatment, coneomitant with acquisition ofembryonic competence. Unique genes expressed during early embryogenesis can be isolated from carrot by combining the appropriate experirnental system and FDD, This stTategy could be applied to many plant species for which genome infbrmation is not