The effect of abscisic acid (ABA) on soybean somatic embryogenesis, embryo 6 development, histodifferentiation, germination and conversion was investigated. Two soybean cultivars (IAS-5 and Conquista) were included in the study. ABA at 50J..LM was applied at two different stages of culture; namely at embryo globular stage in proliferation medium and at histodifferentiation stage in maturation medium. Cultivar IAS-5 showed a higher embryogenic potential, producing high number of histodifferentiated embryos and high germination and conversion rates. For cultivar IAS-5 the presence of ABA in proliferation medium improved embryo germination and conversion. The beneficiai effect of ABA on embryo development was not observed for cultivar Conquista. Thus, the effects of ABA treatments were genotype-specific
