Theobroma cacao: Somatic Embryogenesis.

A two-step process combining direct and indirect somatic embryogenesis, on solid and liquid medium, respectively is described for Theobroma cacao L. Staminodes and petals from unopened bud flowers are used to induce primary direct embryos. Then, these primary embryos are cut to produce embryogenic calli which will develop secondary embryos. This step of indirect SE allows us to produce large quantities of embryos and to do mass propagation using liquid culture medium. Despite a very strong clone dependency and high batch-to-batch variability, about 80% of T. cacao cultivars respond to somatic embryogenesis and can be propagated by this method.