Microarray analysis of siberian ginseng cyclic somatic embryogenesis culture systems provides insight into molecular mechanisms of embryogenic cell cluster generation.

Four systems of cyclic somatic embryogenesis of Siberian ginseng (Eleutherococcus senticosus Maxim) were used to study the mechanism of embryonic cell cluster generation. The first, direct somatic embryo induction (DSEI), generates secondary embryos directly from the primary somatic embryos; the second, direct embryogenic cell cluster induction (DEC)), induces embryogenic cell clusters directly from somatic embryos in agar medium. Subsequently, we found that when DEC-derived somatic embryos are transferred to suspension culture or a bioreactor culture, only somatic embryos are induced, and embryogenic cell clusters cannot form. Therefore, these new lines were named DEC cultured by liquid medium (ECS) and DEC cultured by bioreactor (ECB), respectively. Transmission electron microscopy showed that DEC epidermal cells contained a variety of inclusions, distinct from other lines. A cDNA library of DEC was constructed, and 1,948 gene clusters were obtained and used as probes. RNA was prepared from somatic embryos from each of the four lines and hybridized to a microarray. In DEC, 7 genes were specifically upregulated compared with the other three lines, and 4 genes were downregulated. EsXTH1 and EsPLT1, which were among the genes upregulated in DEC, were cloned using the rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). Real-time quantitative PCR showed EsXTH1 was more highly expressed in DEC than in other lines throughout the culture cycle, and EsPLT1 expression in DEC increased as culture duration increased, but remained at a low expression level in other lines. These results suggest that EsXTH1 and EsPLT1 may be the essential genes that play important roles during the induction of embryogenic cell clusters.