The exact conditions required to initiate and sustain plant cells in culture, or to regenerateintact plants from cultured cells, are different for each plant species. Each variety of aspecies will often have a particular set of cultural requirements. Despite all theknowledge that has been obtained about plant tissue culture during the twentieth century,these conditions have to be identified for each variety through experimentation.
PLANT TISSUE CULTURE
Uses of plant tissue culture
Callus cultures derived from onion
Plant tissue culture now has direct commercial applications as well as value in basicresearch into cell biology, genetics and biochemistry. The techniques include culture of cells, anthers, ovules and embryos on experimental to industrial scales, protoplastisolation and fusion, cell selection and meristem and bud culture. Applications include:
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micropropagation using meristem and shoot culture to produce large numbers of identical individuals
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screening programmes of cells, rather than plants for advantageous characters
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large-scale growth of plant cells in liquid culture as a source of secondary products
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crossing distantly related species by protoplast fusion and regeneration of thenovel hybrid
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production of dihaploid plants from haploid cultures to achieve homozygous linesmore rapidly in breeding programmes
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as a tissue for transformation, followed by either short-term testing of geneticconstructs or regeneration of transgenic plants
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removal of viruses by propagation from meristematic tissues