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Esterases as a marker for growth of BY-2 tobacco cells and early somatic embryos of the Norway spruce

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Abstract

Growth is one of the basic properties of biological systems. The methods which are commonly used for the determination of growth are usually difficult and not very accurate. In the present work we decided to use esterase activity as a growth marker in tobacco suspension culture (BY-2 line) and in early somatic embryos of Norway spruce (clone 2/32) grown on a semi-solid medium. Esterase activity correlates well with the classical growth characteristics of BY-2 and spruce early somatic embryos. Determination of esterase activity is based on spectrophotometric and spectrofluorimetric detection of reaction products, which arise from the enzymatic hydrolysis of two substrates (p -nitrophenyl acetate and fluorescein diacetate) by esterase. The spectrophotometric method enabled us to detect approximately 104 BY-2 cells and 25 spruce embryos whereas the more sensitive spectrofluorimetric method allowed us to detect approximately 800 BY-2 cells and 5 early somatic embryos of Norway spruce.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany and Plant Physiology, Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry, Zemědělská 1, 613 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Jan Víteček, Jiří Petřek & Ladislav Havel

  2. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry, Zemědělská 1, 613 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Vojtěch Adam, Jan Vacek & René Kizek

Authors
  1. Jan Víteček
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  2. Vojtěch Adam
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  3. Jiří Petřek
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  4. Jan Vacek
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  5. René Kizek
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  6. Ladislav Havel
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Correspondence to Ladislav Havel.

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Víteček, J., Adam, V., Petřek, J. et al. Esterases as a marker for growth of BY-2 tobacco cells and early somatic embryos of the Norway spruce. Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture 79, 195–201 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-004-0660-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-004-0660-1

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