Conventional methods of germplasm storage follows seed storage at 10–20°C at reduced moisture in sealed containers. Germplasm deteriorates under such conditions in plants such as rubber, neem, cocoa, jackfruit, mango, and litchi. For these and for seedless plants like tapioca, sugarcane, and sweet banana, germplasm storage may be in the form of cryopreservation of in vitro cultures of…
Anther or pollen culture in vitro gives rise to plants with haploid number of chromosomes. While naturally occurring haploids are rare as reported in Datura, Nicotiana, Coptis, and Arrhinium species, tissue culture–raised haploids are of great economic importance in plant-breeding programs and in mutation studies. By themselves sterile, they may be made to form homozygous diploids by colchicine treatment. Ever…
In vitro culture of shoot meristem measuring less than 0.1 mm in length is called meristem culture. It is employed in the in vitro clonal propagation of plants from shoot tips, leaf sections, and calli. By this technique it is possible to generate virus-free plants in culture from meristem of infected plants. This is especially applicable to those…
Formation of simply organized embryo-like structures originating in culture from somatic cells either spontaneously or through growth regulators is called somatic embryogenesis. This is a versatile technique used for micropropagation and when somatic embryos are coated appropriately they form artificial seeds. These may be sown in the field directly and this technique increases germination of…
Aseptic isolation of embryos at different developmental stages from ovules, immature seeds, polyembryonic seeds either inviable or abortive is called embryo culture. In vitro embryo culture is used to regenerate healthy plants from non-viable embryos, to overcome seed dormancy, to obtain rare and novel hybrids, propagate rare plants, and raise haploid plants. It is used for recovering hybrids…
Plantlets from tissue culture give rise to morphological variation compared to the original source plants. These variations may be of economic importance, when desirable variants are suitably selected. This is especially valuable in plant-breeding programs in sexually reproducing crop plants with limited variability and to induce variation in vegetatively propagated species. Somaclonal variation has been…
Developing large numbers of identical plantlets by using shoot tip or auxillary bud culture of the plant variety with the desired traits, shall supplement the present methods of sexual and asexual propagation methods. Such micropropagation is of specific use for plants difficult to propagate by these conventional methods. It offers high multiplication rates and is…
Future scope of plant-tissue culture in terms of applications in agriculture and horticulture is enormous. In our country, it is being extensively worked on toward developing improved crop varieties to feed our burgeoning population, improve dwindling forest cover, micro propagate for rapid propagation of precious trees like bamboo, teak, sandal wood, eucalyptus in addition to…
Tracing the history of plant-tissue culture, one can identify the series of land mark discoveries in this field to be originating from the proposal of cell as the basic unit of form and function of an organism. As predicted by Haberlandt, experiences with plant-tissue culture greatly expanded our understanding about the “inter relationships and complementary…
Biotechnology refers to the technology-based utilization of biological systems for generation of products to improve quality of human life. Such utilization has been happening since thousands of years in terms of agriculture (raising food crops), food production (baking, brewing, dairy products), and more recently in medicine (antibiotics from soil microorganisms). Developments in the late 20th…