Prospects for Crop Improvement in the Field of Cell Culture1

Abstract

Abstract Advances in plant tissue culture techniques during the past decade have fostered the hope that these techniques can be utilized for crop improvement. Simply stated, these methods allow large, relatively homogeneous populations of cells from diverse tissue sources to be grown and regenerated into plants in a defined environment. An important advantage gained by this capability is that tissue and genetic complexities associated with whole plants can be simplified by working at the cellular level. This capability has provided many new approaches for the investigation and modification of plants. The techniques being extended from model plant systems to increasing numbers of crops include reliable growth of somatic and haploid cells, protoplast isolation and culture, intra- and intergeneric hybridizations by protoplast fusion, utilization of selection systems to recover desired mutants, and the regeneration of plants in all of the above areas. Several recent reviews discuss the development and current status of these techniques and provide insight into their potential uses for crop improvement (2, 6, 7, 23, 24, 26, 27).