HANDBOOK of PLANT CELL CULTURE Techniques for Propagation and Breeding

• Main Author: Evans, David (Author)
• Other Authors: Evans, David 1952-, Sharp, William R. 1936-, Ammirato, Philip V. 1943-
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: New York London Macmillan Collier Macmillan 1983; ©1983
• Subjects: Plant cell culture > Handbooks, manuals, etc
• Online Access: Click Here to View Status and Holdings.

 The past few years have witnessed a dramatic increase in our ability to manipulate and study plant cells in culture. The variety of tech niques that collectively comprise "plant cell culture" have permitted investigations at many levels-molecular, cellular, and organismal-and have been applied to a range of disciplines-biochemistry, genetics, physiology, anatomy, and cell biology. Some of the most important tools in modern genetics have emerged from work with cultured plant cells. These have not only permitted a better understanding of Men delian genetics and cytoplasmic inheritance, but have also resulted in new and unique organisms that could not have been derived from sexual crosses being developed from anther culture and protoplast fusion products. The growing realization of the potentialities of plant cell culture for plant propagation and breeding has itself provided a substantial impetus. for research. Commercial plant propagation using shoot tip cultures is now being implemented, new breeding lines have been selected using protoplast fusion, and new varieties have been developed via somaclonal variation and from plants derived from cultured anthers. Furthermore, the increasing competence to manipulate plant DNA and genes has led to the appreciation that cell culture will be necessary to recover modified plants. All in all, it is now readily apparent that cell culture. is the keystone to progress in plant biotechnology. The application and development of current techniques is opening the door to a second. green revolution. Although many of the recent developments in this field have been chronicled in the proceedings of scientific meetings and the publications. in refereed journals, no fied summary of this exciting field is avail able. To remedy this, we have tried to bring together in this treatise much of the information that until now has been scattered. Three aspects of recent research serve as focal points. First, as many devel opments have been reported in recent years, there is a need for at critical review of the literature.