Significant progress has been made in the culture of plant tissues and cells in vitro and in the experimental manipulation of higher plant parts and cells as microorganisms. With the increasing volume of relevant publications geneticists and plant breeders are evincing increased interest in the potential practical applications of tissue and cell culture to plant breeding. It is difficult to predict many of the potential contributions to plant improvement from this rapidly developing field of research. While these may surpass expectations, we should realize that we are witnessing only the initial stages of application, partly because of lacunae in available knowledge on differentiation and relevant selection procedures for variant cell lines and partly because of inadequate attention to the aspects of large scale plant regeneration and survival in economically important species. However, work on intensive tissue culture with agriculturally important crops, including most cereals, is now in progress (6, 23, 41, 54, 56, 59). Most aspects concerning recent developments in tissue and cell culture and their significance for plant genetic studies and breeding have been discussed in detail in some excellent and challenging reviews (2, 5, 11, 14, 20, 25, 29, 43, 49, 53, 61, 66). Totipotency and embryogenesis have been reviewed by Vasil and Vasil (71).
Part of the Proceedings in Life Sciences book series
Significant progress has been made in the culture of plant tissues and cells in vitro and in the experimental manipulation of higher plant parts and cells as microorganisms. With the increasing volume of relevant publications geneticists and plant breeders are evincing increased interest in the potential practical applications of tissue and cell culture to plant breeding. It is difficult to predict many of the potential contributions to plant improvement from this rapidly developing field of research. While these may surpass expectations, we should realize that we are witnessing only the initial stages of application, partly because of lacunae in available knowledge on differentiation and relevant selection procedures for variant cell lines and partly because of inadequate attention to the aspects of large scale plant regeneration and survival in economically important species. However, work on intensive tissue culture with agriculturally important crops, including most cereals, is now in progress (6, 23, 41, 54, 56, 59). Most aspects concerning recent developments in tissue and cell culture and their significance for plant genetic studies and breeding have been discussed in detail in some excellent and challenging reviews (2, 5, 11, 14, 20, 25, 29, 43, 49, 53, 61, 66). Totipotency and embryogenesis have been reviewed by Vasil and Vasil (71).
Part of the Proceedings in Life Sciences book series