Plant Tissue Culture and Crop Improvement

Abstract

Due to the drastically increasing population associated with limited natural and traditionally cultivated crops, novel methods are required to address this concern and thereby increase crop productivity. With the advent of various scientific technologies, such as plant tissue culture, crop improvement through various in vitro protocols involving genetic manipulation has come to the forefront. Plant tissue culture is an advanced in vitro protocol, through which regeneration of organs, tissues, or plant cells can be obtained on an artificially prepared nutrient medium. Employing various novel gene transfer methods, the preferred characteristic traits from one plant can be passed on to another plant simply by introducing the gene responsible for that particular character. In plant tissue culture, several techniques like protoplast fusion, anther culture, and embryo transfer have been used to produce new genetically variant cops. Tissue culture helps in mass multiplication and clonal propagation of plants from any tiny part of the plant tissue. In recent years, this technique has been vastly used for conservation of germplasm as well as in the commercialization of various crops. Cell culture techniques are playing a major role in enhancing crop improvement potential by producing somaclonal and gametoclonal variants. Several varieties of crops including but not limited to vegetable (resistant to pest and disease-free), fruits (seedless, pink fleshed), ornamental plants, and sporeless mushrooms have been developed. This was possible only due to the diverse advanced protocols that are rapidly expanding in the field of tissue culture. Keeping in view of the importance and impact of tissue culture in enhancing the quality and yield of crops, this chapter is focused on reviewing methodologies employed in plant tissue culture along with the challenges that lie ahead.