Proteomic approaches have been used to understand several regulatory aspects of plant development. Somatic embryogenesis is one of those developmental pathways that have beneficiated from the integration of proteomics data to the understanding of the molecular mechanisms that control embryogenic competence acquisition, somatic embryo development and conversion into viable plants. Nevertheless, most of the results obtained are based on the traditional model systems, very often not easily compared with the somatic embryogenesis systems of economical relevant woody species. The aim of this work is to summarize some of the applications of proteomics in the understanding of particular aspects of the somatic embryogenesis process in broad-leaf woody plants (model and non-model systems).
Keywords: 2D electrophoresis; Angiosperms; Embryo maturation; Embryogenic competence; Heat-shock protein s; Mass spectrometry analysis; Metabolism-related protein s; Stress-related protein s; Zygotic embryo.