Rejuvenation of adult white spruce (Picea glauca) through somatic embryogenesis

This is a multi-year project involving multiple collections of shoot bud explants from four genotypes of somatic white spruce grown in the field, and in vitro induction of somatic embryogenesis. The goals of the experiments are:

1. To determine if there are positional and/or temporal, and/or physiological factors that influence the ability of the shoot bud explants to undergo SE.
2. The long-term goal is to determine if the tree phase change (from vegetative to reproductive) is involved in the loss of ability for SE, if it occurs.
3. To establish a field test of somatic trees regenerated from white spruce trees of different ontogenic ages and determine if true rejuvenation had occurred.