In our conditions, the number of methylation changes per plant was small and the resulting total polymorphism was1 % independently of the age of the cell culture, indicating little disruption to the epigenetic status.
Similarly, low levels of methylation variation were found in freesia somatic seedlings derived from short-term cultures (Gao et al. 2010) and pea long-term multiple shoot cultures (Smy´kal et al. 2007).