TY - JOUR AU - Ham, Hannél AU - du Plessis, Anton AU - le Roux, Stephan Gerhard PY - 2017 DA - 2017/01/20 TI - Microcomputer tomography (microCT) as a tool in Pinus tree breeding: pilot studies JO - New Zealand Journal of Forestry Science SP - 2 VL - 47 IS - 1 AB - Pinus breeding programmes yield high numbers of seeds, but a non-destructive method to determine seed viability is still lacking. With the long reproductive cycle (up to 28 months) of Pinus species, determining when fertilisation occurs can assist when applying tissue culture methods like somatic embryogenesis (SE). For SE, pre-cotyledonary zygotic embryos are ideal for culture initiation (some weeks after fertilisation), while mature zygotic embryos are extracted and used for in vitro amplification during organogenesis. Achieving automated viability assays in extracted seeds would also be helpful, as would being able to find numbers and condition of seeds in immature or unopened cones. For such applications, microcomputer tomography (microCT) was a candidate technology. SN - 1179-5395 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s40490-016-0084-9 DO - 10.1186/s40490-016-0084-9 ID - Ham2017 ER -