| Abstract | 1. The process of spontaneous intraspecific protoplast fusion occurred at high frequencies (20-80%) both during and after cell wall degradation. The expansion of plasmodesmatal strands was considered to be the mechanism involved in achieving spontaneous fusion.
2. Differential nuclear staining with modified carbol fusion permitted the identification of heterokaryotic protoplasts. Consequently, the frequency of interspecific protoplst fusion be determined.
3. The frequency of interspecific fusion was observed to be 0.1-1% in the presence of several possible inducing agents which included Sendai virus, high temperature, deplasmolyzing osmotic shock, sodium nitrate, lysolecithin, ATP, ADP, cyclic AMP, and poly-L-ornithine. |
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