Plant Biotechnology

Plant biotechnology is a set of techniques used to adapt

plants for specific needs or opportunities.

Situations that combine multiple needs and opportunities are

common.

For example, a single crop may be required to provide

sustainable food and healthful nutrition, protection of the
environment, and opportunities for jobs and income.

Finding or developing suitable plants is typically a highly

complex challenge
Plant biotechnologies that assist in developing new
varieties and traits include genetics and genomics,
marker-assisted selection (MAS), and transgenic (genetic
engineered) crops.

These biotechnologies allow researchers to detect and

map genes, discover their functions, select for specific
genes in genetic resources and breeding, and transfer
genes for specific traits into plants where they are
needed.
Areas of work include, but not limited to:
Genetic structures and mechanisms

Methods for transgenic biotechnology (also known as genetic engineering)

Identification of traits and genes that can contribute to national and global goals
for agriculture

Plant genome sequences; molecular markers, and bioinformatics

Gene Editing/Genome Editing

For thousands of years, humankind has used
biotechnology in agriculture, food production,
and medicine

The term is largely believed to have been coined in 1919

by Hungarian engineer Károly Ereky
In the late 20th and early 21st century, biotechnology
has expanded to include new and diverse sciences such
as genomics, recombinant gene techniques,
applied immunology, and development of
pharmaceutical therapies and diagnostic tests
Although not normally what first comes to mind, many
forms of human-derived agriculture clearly fit the broad
definition of "'utilizing a biotechnological system to
make products“

Indeed, the cultivation of plants may be viewed as the

earliest biotechnological enterprise
Genetically modified crops are plants used in agriculture,
the DNA of which has been modified with genetic
engineering techniques

In most cases the aim is to introduce a new trait to the

plant which does not occur naturally in the species
Three Fundamental Abilities of Plants

Totipotency - the potential or inherent capacity of a plant cell to

develop into an entire plant if suitably stimulated. It implies that all
the information necessary for growth and reproduction of the
organism is contained in the cell.

Dedifferentiation - Capacity of mature cells to return to meristematic

condition and development of a new growing point, follow by
redifferentiation which is the ability to reorganise into new organ.

Competency - the endogenous potential of a given cells or tissue to

develop in a particular way.
 Plant tissue culture
Plant tissue culture is a collection of techniques used to
maintain or grow plant cells, tissues or organs under
sterile conditions on a nutrient culture medium of
known composition

Plant tissue culture is widely used to produce clones of

a plant in a method known as micropropagation

Different techniques in plant tissue culture may offer

certain advantages over traditional methods of
propagation
Advantages
The production of exact copies of plants that produce
particularly good flowers, fruits, or have other
desirable traits

To quickly produce mature plants

The production of multiples of plants in the absence

of seeds or necessary pollinators to produce seeds

The regeneration of whole plants from plant cells

that have been genetically modified
The production of plants in sterile containers that allows
them to be moved with greatly reduced chances of
transmitting diseases, pests, and pathogens

The production of plants from seeds that otherwise have

very low chances of germinating and growing,
i.e.: orchids and Nepenthes

To clean particular plants of viral and other infections

and to quickly multiply these plants as 'cleaned stock'
for horticulture and agriculture
Important discoveries in the history of plant
tissue culture:

1838 Totipotency theory (Schwann and Scheilden) –

cells are autonomic, and in principle, are capable of
regenerating to give a complete plant

1892 Plants synthesize organ forming substances

which are polarly distributed (Sachs)

1902 First attempt at plant tissue culture (Haberlandt)

1904 First attempt at embryo culture of selected
crucifers (Hannig)

1909 Fusion of plant protoplasts, although the products

failed to survive (Kuster)

1922 Asymbiotic germination of orchid seeds in

vitro (Knudson) In vitro culture of root tips
1953 Haploid callus of Gingko biloba produced from
pollen (Tulecke)

1954 Monitoring of changes in karyology and in

chromosome behavior of endosperm cultures of maize
(Strauss)

1955 Discovery of kinetin, a cell division hormone

(Miller et al.)

1956 Realization of growth cultures in multi-litre

suspension systems to produce secondary products by
Tulecke and Nickell (Staba, 1985)
1962 The development of the famous Murashige and
Skoog medium (Murashige and Skoog)

1964 First haploid Datura plants produced from pollen

grains (Guha and Maheshwari).

Regeneration of roots and shoots on callus tissue

of Populus tremuloides (Mathes)
1973 Cytokinin found capable of breaking dormancy
in excised capitulum explants
of Gerbera (Murashige et al.)

1975 Positive selection of maize callus cultures

resistant to Helminthosporium maydis (Gengenbach
en Green)
1983 Intergeneric cytoplasmic hybridization in radish
and rape (Pelletier et al.)

1984 Transformation of plant cells with plasmid DNA

(Paszkowski et al.)

1984 Development of the genetic fingerprinting

technique for identifying individuals by analyzing
Polymorphism at DNA sequence level (Alec Jeffreys)

1985 Infection and transformation of leaf discs

with Agrobacterium tumefaciensand the regeneration
of transformed plants (Horsch et al.)
1986 TMV virus-resistant tobacco and tomato transgenic
plants developed using cDNA of coat protein gene of
TMV (Powell-Abel et al.)

1987 Development of biolistic gene transfer method for

plant transformation(Sanford et al.; Klein et al.)

1987 Isolation of Bt gene for bacterium (Bacillus

thuringiensis) (Barton et al.)
Shri S.C. Maheshwari and Sipra Guha made a
remarkable contribution in the development of plant
tissue culture in India

Later, the development in the composition of nutrient

media and genetic engineering served as a basis for
further success in the plant tissue culture techniques