In leaf tissues of the Cichorium hybrid clone '474' (C. intybus L. var. sativum x C. endivia L. var. latifolia), the acquisition and expression of embryogenic competence was characterised by the appearance of 15 polypeptides (Boyer et al., 1993, Plant Sci 93: 41-53). The 38-kDa proteins were found to be abundantly present in conditioned embryogenic medium after the first division of the induced cells. These proteins seemed to be glycosylated as indicated by general carbohydrate detection methods. Internal amino-acid sequences obtained after microsequencing tryptic peptides appeared to be 36-57% homologous with plant beta-1,3-endoglucanases. In addition, these 38-kDa proteins were recognised by antibodies raised against the pathogenesis-related tobacco glucanase PR2a and their beta-1,3-glucanase activity was demonstrated by direct detection in polyacrylamide gels after electrophoresis. These results strongly suggested that the 38-kDa somatic-embryogenesis-related (SER) polypeptides are beta-1,3-glucanases. Moreover, the level of glucanase activity was nearly three times higher in the medium of the embryogenic '474' line than in the medium of a non-embryogenic line. The possible involvement of the extracellular 38-kDa proteins in callose degradation during somatic embryogenesis is discussed.