Commercial micropropagation plays a crucial role in increasing the production of many economically important fruit crops worldwide, including Europe. The focus has been on many woody horticultural species, such as stone and pome fruits, berries, nuts, and palms. This paper presents an updated overview of the European commercial micropropagation landscape, highlighting the countries currently operating in this sector, crop targets, and the distribution of micropropagation companies based on recent survey data.

Reforestation initiatives are often limited by insufficient seeds, a problem exacerbated by natural variability in tree flowering and seed production, climate change and other environmental challenges. Innovative and adaptive solutions, such as in vitro propagation, are thus needed. Tissue culture can provide high-quality propagation material for tree conservation and mass propagation, but faces technical, economic, regulatory, and social barriers.

Somatic embryogenesis is a useful method for propagating selected plant material. However, before using this technique for forest tree deployment, it is important to ensure high-quality somatic embryos (SEs). This quality depends on how closely SEs resemble zygotic embryos (ZEs). At the end of their maturation, SEs usually resemble ZEs from fresh seeds due to their high water content and biochemical composition.

It is assumed that the production of somatic embryos (SEs), which closely resemble fully mature zygotic embryos (ZEs), increases the chance of producing somatic plants equivalent to seedlings. Desiccation is crucial to reduce the water content of SEs and to initiate biochemical changes that support germination and conversion into plants. We investigated the biological, histological, biochemical and molecular changes in the SEs of hybrid larch Larix eurolepis exposed to desiccation at high relative humidity (RH; 98 %), reduced RH (59 %), or a combination of both.

Chenopodium ficifolium is a close diploid relative of the tetraploid crop Chenopodium quinoa. Owing to its reproducible germination and seedling development, it becomes a promising model for studying floral induction, providing a basis for comparison with C. quinoa. Two C. ficifolium genotypes differ in photoperiodic requirement: C. ficifolium 283 accelerates flowering under long days, whereas C. ficifolium 459 flowers earlier under short days.