Provided is a method of improving plant embryo development and/or germination.Themethod comprises developing plant embryos in the presence of nitric oxide(NO). The methodentails the step of incubating plant embryogenic suspensor mass (ESM) in, oron, adevelopment medium containing a nitric oxide donor for a period of time todevelop maturesomatic embryos. The method disclosed herein improves the yield and/or thegerminationfrequency of plant embryos as compared to plant embryos developed byconventional methodswithout a nitric oxide donor in the medium.
