Biotechnological applications of plant cells

Abstract

This article has tended to stress some important biotechnological applications of plant cells, as though these lie only in the future. It should be stressed at this point that many Japanese patents already exist describing the utilization of plant cells for many of the types of applications treated in this article. A discussion of these patents, and the subjects to which they apply, can be found in ref (113).Future biotechnological applications of plant cells can conceivably follow in two directions. First, much greater utilization of plant cells using mass growth, and whole cell immobilization techniques already utilized with bacterial cells. Second, the possible creation of new types of cells by the various genetic engineering techniques that have been briefly described in this text. Such techniques may conceivably lead to the production of entirely new and novel compounds by plant cells, or alternatively, may greatly improve the utilization of substrates and the production of existing compounds by these cells.