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[Seed Collector]

Induction of Monozygotic Twinning by Ascorbic Acid in Tobacco
by Zhong Chen, Daniel R. Gallie. 2012
Department of Biochemistry, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California, United States of America

Abstract:

"Embryo development in plants initiates following the transverse division of a zygote into an apical, proembryo cell and a basal cell that gives rise to the suspensor. Although mutants affected in embryo development through changes in cell division have been described, little is known about the control of the first zygotic division that gives rise to the proembryo. Ascorbic acid (Asc) promotes cell division by inducing G1 to S progression but its role in embryo development has not been examined. In this study, we show that the level of dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR) expression, which recycles Asc and regulates Asc pool size, affects the rate of monozygotic twinning and polycotyly. DHAR-induced twinning resulted from altered cell polarity and longitudinal instead of transverse cell division that generated embryos of equal size. Direct injection of Asc into ovaries phenocopied DHAR-induced twinning. Twinning induced by Asc was developmentally limited to the first two days after pollination whereas polycotyly was induced when the level of Asc was elevated just prior to cotyledon initiation. This work describes the first example of gene-directed monozygotic twinning and shows that Asc regulates cell polarity during embryo development."



Basically by applying Ascorbic Acid, they increased the probability that Tobacco seeds would produce multiple seedlings per seed.

2 Likes TBM and LIBERTYNY like this.

[TBM]

I've never heard of this before, how very unusual


I wonder if this would work with other seeds....

[Seed Collector]

Apparently it has occurred with cacti

So, i planted 50 more l. alberto seeds and the first one to germinate had twins! Two seedlings in one little shell.

I have seen this before with Cannabis somewhere on the internet; they said they didn't add Ascorbic acid though.

[Auxin]

  But are all twin sproutings identical twins like in this paper?
I've had twinnings happen spontaneously in chillies, usually one seedling would be bigger than the other. No idea if they were monozygotic.

[Seed Collector]

But are all twin sproutings identical twins like in this paper?
I've had twinnings happen spontaneously in chillies, usually one seedling would be bigger than the other. No idea if they were monozygotic.

My understanding is that not all plant twinning is identical twinning; in the circumstance of dizygotic twinning, they would not be genetically identical.
I don't know if dizygotic twinning is less or more common than monozygotic twinning.
When I've seen twinning, I've found its best to separate the sprouts as soon as possible so that they are not competing against each other in such a crucial phase.

Link between vitamin C and twins can increase seed production in crops - Discovery can assist farming of low-fertility crops, say UC Riverside biochemists.

Twin seedlings.

The frequency of twin seedlings can be increased by germinating the seeds without shell. Nitrogen in the germination media, hydrogen peroxide treatment and germinating the seeds at optimum temperature also enhanced this trait.