Ultrastructural changes in cells of pea embryo radicles during germination.

Radicles (1 mm long) of pea embryo axes, excised from dormant seeds and from seeds soaked for 80 min, 8, 12, and 48 hr, were fixed in glutaraldehyde and postfixed in OsO(4). The nucleus was only slightly changed by 48 hr soaking, but cytoplasmic organelles underwent developmental changes. There was proliferation of endoplasmic reticulum, the appearance of dictyosomes, and an inward migration of lipid bodies. Most of these changes were observed within 8 hr after soaking started. Plastids, mitochondria, protein bodies, and protein crystalline bodies were also identified and their developmental changes were followed.