体细胞胚胎发生是体细胞向胚胎发生途径转变的发育再建过程，是植物发育中的独特现象。作为细胞全能性的有力证据和经典示例，体胚发生现象被看作是开展生物学理论研究的良好模型。同时，该过程在作物的遗传转化和体外快繁中发挥至关重要的作用，是作物细胞与基因工程、无性繁殖的重要环节和技术瓶颈。本项目计划对棉花离体细胞胚性分化起始这一重要时期的蛋白质动态表达特征与调控规律进行研究，挖掘调控胚性分化起始的候选应答因子，并鉴定其功能与调控路径，揭示诱导体胚发生过程中细胞胚性分化起始的分子基础。本项目研究将为体外高效调控体胚发生与植株再生过程和拓展作物遗传工程提供理论依据、基因资源，对揭示细胞全能性与植株再生的分子调控机理，促进作物生物技术发展，具有比较重要的科学意义和应用价值。

Somatic embryogenesis is a developmental process in which somatic cells are transformed into embryogenic state. It is a unique phenomenon in plant development. As a strong evidence and classic example of cell totipotency, somatic embryogenesis is regarded as a good model for the study of biological theory. At the same time, this process plays an important role in the genetic transformation and in vitro rapid propagation of crops, and it is an important link and technical bottleneck of crop cell and gene engineering and asexual propagation. This project will focus on the dynamic characteristics of protein expression and regulation patterns during the important period of embryogenic differentiation initiation, identifying the candidate response factors regulating embryogenic differentiation, analyzing their functions and regulatory pathways, and further revealing the molecular basis underlying the induction of embryogenic initiation during somatic embryogenesis. This study is to provide theoretical basis and gene resources for in vitro efficient regulation of somatic embryogenesis and plant regeneration and expansion of crop genetic engineering. It has important scientific and application value for revealing the molecular regulatory mechanism of cell totipotency and plant regeneration, and holding great promise for promoting the development of crop biotechnology.