Using the Agrobacterium tumefaciens transformation system, somatic embryogenic cells derived from the early globular pro-embryo stage cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) were transformed with the mgfp5-ER cDNA expression construct for the green fluorescent protein (GFP). GFP fluorescence was detected in the late globular and heart-shaped stages regenerated from transformed embryonic cells. GFP fluorescence in the cells of transformed embryos was observed by means of confocal and fluorescence microscopy. In addition, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of a GFP-encoding fragment in somatic embryos corroborated the presence of mgfp5-ER sequence homologies in the genomic DNA of these embryos. Untransformed controls gave no PCR amplification signal, and little fluorescence when viewed  using fluorescence and confocal microscopy.