WHAT
IS TISSUE CULTURE
As
a technique, plant tissue culture includes growing plants
and plant parts in controlled aseptic conditions on a medium
containing nutrients and growth factors (vitamins and plant
hormones) in test tube or any other container. For different
species of plants, different kind of composition of media
is required. Thus tissue culture procedure utilizes a laboratory
type facility. However, plants can be produced from any part
of the plant, but apical meristem is used to produce true
to the type plants through tissue culture, this process is
called MICROPRPAGATION or MERICLONING.
BENEFITS
OF TISSUE CULTURE TECHNOLOGY:
Use
of tissue culture technology has come up as a very potential
tool, which offers great promise to:
- Speed
up the process of disease free vegetative multiplication
of newly developed varieties in short span of time, to
shrink the time of 8 to 10 years by conventional methods.
By using one million plants every year total seed of potato
can be replaced every 5 years. This would facilitate quick
exploitation of new varieties before they become degenerated
by diseases and pests.
- Produce
disease and pest free material of old, but high yielding
and very well adapted varieties.
- Provide
disease and pest free clones, which is very convenient
and economic to transport even to distant places with
out the danger of introducing new pests and diseases along
with the seed tuber.
- Improve
the capacity to preserve and store the germplasm and field
longevity of clones.
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