Neomorph and leaf differentiation as alternative morphogenetic pathways in soybean tissue culture.

Somatic embryogenesis and organogenesis were induced on immature cotyledons of different soybean cultivars. The anatomical investigation of morphogenesis proved neomorph differentiation instead of somatic embryos, and leaf formation instead of shoot development. While normal embryos were induced in 0-3.1% of the explants, neomorphs developed at a much higher rate i.e. in 10.5-78.9% depending on the genotype. Likewise organogenesis preferably followed the pathway of leaflet development (3.1-26.3%) than that of shoot tip formation (0-2.6%). Low plant regeneration frequency of soybean can partly be explained with these two alternative abortive pathways of morphogenesis probably induced with higher frequency than the normal pathways by the generally used in vitro methods.