Somatic embryogenesis (SE) is a plant-specific developmental process that involves the induction of the embryogenic programme in already differentiated somatic cells, which results in the formation of somatic embryos that are capable of regenerating complete plants. Besides its usefulness for efficient in vitro plant regeneration, SE provides a unique system to study the molecular mechanisms controlling developmental plasticity of plants somatic cells. Our research aims at understanding regulatory pathways that contribute to the SE induction. To this end, we work with the plant model Arabidopsis and the crop plant Hordeum vulgare and we study the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms underlying the induction of SE in this plants. [...]