Apples are considered as one of the most important fruit crop with excellent health benefits and extensive
area of cultivation. Majority of their benefits is associated with a relatively high content of antioxidants
including phenolic compounds that belong to the health-promoting phytochemicals.
Phenolic compounds constitute a substantial and an important group of phenylpropanoids produced by
plants as secondary metabolites. The health-promoting effects of phenolic compounds depend on their

It is necessary to find convenient and measurable criteria for the evaluation of seeds/embryos quality before germination because of a long time interval between the preparation of seeds or embryos (before germination) and obtaining the seedlings or emblings. The success of all treatments before germination is assessed by the quality of the newly formed plants only.

Lelu-Walter M.-A., Gautier F., Eliášová K., Sanchez L., Teyssier C., Lomenech A.-M., Le Metté C., Hargreaves C., Trontin J.-F., Reeves C. 

Somatic embryogenesis is a developmental process by which a plant somatic cell can dedifferentiate to a totipotent embryonic stem cell that has the ability to give rise to an embryo under appropriate conditions. Desiccation is the final phase of normal embryonic development in most angiosperms and appears to be important in the transition from embryogeny to the ability to germinate and form normal seedlings. Different conditions during desiccation affect the biochemical changes that occur during this phase.

Embryogenic cultures of Douglas-fir were induced from immature zygotic embryos. They proliferate as embryonal masses, however, in some lines of Douglas-fir, non-embryogenic cell (NECs) clusters interspersed with early somatic embryos (SEs) were observed. In order to evaluate the differences between lines we wanted to quantify the proportion of the SEs and NECs in the embryonal mass. For estimation of this proportion (volume density) we used stereological point-counting method based on counting points of the test grid falling in the tissue under study.