Appeal 2007-2681
Application 10/680,676
BACKGROUND
“Reproduction of selected plant varieties by tissue culture has been a
commercial success for many years” (Specification 1). The predominant
approach to conifer tissue culture is somatic embryogenesis, a process in
which
an explant, usually a seed or seed embryo, is placed on an
initiation medium where it multiplies into a multitude of
genetically identical immature embryos. . . . [T]he immature
embryos are placed on a development or maturation medium
where they grow into somatic analogs of mature seed embryos.
These embryos are then individually selected and placed on a
germination medium for further development.
(Id.) “[T]he selection from the maturation medium of individual embryos
suitable for germination . . . is a skilled yet tedious job that is time
consuming and expensive” (id. at 2).
The Specification discloses a method for automated sorting of
embryos. Embryos are
classified by developing a single metric classification model by
acquiring raw digital image data of reference samples of whole
plant embryos . . . of known embryo quality. . . . The metric
values are [calculated and] divided into two sets. . . . A Lorenz
curve is calculated from each set of metric values. A threshold
value is determined from a point on the Lorenz curve which
serves as a single metric classification model to classify plant
embryos by embryo quality.
(Id. at 4.) The classification model developed based on embryos of known
quality is then “applied to the raw image data acquired from plant embryos
of unknown quality in order to classify the quality of the unknown plant
embryo” (id.).
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