“…The LEA genes lsolated from carrot somatic embryos include representatives of all four described groups of LEA proteins, which are characterized by significant homology in either amino acid composition or general protein structure (Dure et al, 1989). All of the carrot LEA genes that have been analyzed to date show detectable expression in callus cells (some, like ECP31 and ECP40, are highly expressed in the PEMs of callus cell cultures), and most of the LEA transcripts increase significantly in abundance in somatic embryos at the heart stage (Choi et al, 1987;Wilde et al, 1988;Franz et al, 1989;Kiyosue et al, 1992Kiyosue et al, , 1993Wurtele et al, 1993). Indeed, we have found the LEAs to be the most abundant and differentially expressed mRNAs in somatic embryos, as compared to callus cells (X. Lin, G-J.…”