Abstract
Electrofusion of cabbage protoplasts was performed with a developed equipment which consists of a parallel wire electrode, a AC field generator, and a pulse generator. Exposure of protoplasts to an alternating current field of 450 KHz causes attraction to each other which leads to chains of protoplasts extending from the electrode. Intra-specific protoplast fusion was effectively induced within the pearl chains by the additional application of a single high-intensity DC square wave pulse of 1 KV/cm for 1-3 msec. To improve the performance, micro fusion electrode fabricated from the semiconductor technology and microcontroller based field an, d pulse generator was proposed. The viability of protoplasts after an application of electric field at optimum condition was reduced by only 5 % compared with that of pre-application. A prototype of fusion electrode, which consists of insulator-structure, was successfully fabricated by using photosensitive polyimide.