Cell Culture and Secondary Products

Abstract

An appreciation of the basic techniques of cell suspension culture is essential to any assessment of their realized and potential applications. Following a critical evaluation of the present state of technology in the field, this article outlines the directions in which suspension cultures have contributed to our knowledge of the basic physiology of higher plant cells in culture. Finally, it then attempts to identify the obstacles to further progress and to suggest lines along which development should be pressed if the potential of such cultures is to be further exploited, particularly in relation to increasing our understanding of plant cell differentiation and of the control of specific aspects of cellular metabolism. Current achievements in using callus and suspension cultures for studies on secondary plant products in general and on medicinal compounds in particular are outlined in some detail in the articles written respectively by Butcher (Chap. VI.2 of this Vol.) and Staba (Chap. VI.3 of this Vol.). The concluding section of this article does, however, consider how far advanced techniques of handling cell suspension cultures open up new approaches to the study of secondary product biosynthesis in plant cell cultures.