Suspension cells could be observed after two weeks of culture. Several cell types were observed: large and highly vacuolated cells, dense cytoplasm cells, single cells and cell aggregates (Figure 1 C). After homogenization, single cells and small cell aggregates were selected. After two months of cultivation,the suspension was set up by dense cytoplasm cell aggregates. Domergue et al. (2000) have described such cells as type II ones, highly embryogenic with the
producing capacity of 130,000 to 150,000 embryos m-1 of PCV. When the cell suspensions were 4–5 months old, fi ne embryogenic cells were observed as yellowish
white in color. The yellow pigmentation of cytoplasm indicated the embryogenic character of the cell suspensions (Ganapathi et al., 2001; Jalil et al., 2003). The number of cells had doubled at every subcultivation period.