To advance the understanding of somatic embryogenesis, the Principal Investigators (PIs) have proposed a hypothesis in which form development of the carrot embryo is related to the combined effect of nutrient, hormone and geometry. The objective of the proposed research is to test this hypothesis in a defined chemical environment and via mathematical modeling. The execution of the research project will involve three aspects: - Develop techniques to quantitatively measure growth, form development, and metabolic activities in embryo cultures of normal cells and temperature-sensitive variants. - Formulate the hypothesis as a mathematical model to examine the effect of nutrients, growth regulators, and geometry on form change of embryos. - Manipulate environmental factors to examine their effects on embryogenesis.
