The WUSCHEL gene promotes vegetative‐to‐embryonic transition in Arabidopsis

Formation of somatic embryos in plants is known to require high concentrations of auxin or 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), which presumably acts to trigger a signalling cascade. However, very little is known about the molecular mechanism that mediates the vegetative-to-embryogenic transition. We have employed a genetic approach to dissect the signal transduction pathway during somatic embryogenesis. In a functional screen using a chemical-inducible activation-tagging system, we identified two alleles of Arabidopsis gene PGA6 whose induced overexpression caused high-frequency somatic embryo formation in all tissues and organs tested, without any external plant hormones. Upon inducer withdrawal, all…