Читать книгу Principles of Plant Genetics and Breeding - George Acquaah - Страница 332

In vitro culture or tissue culture of cells, tissues, organs, and protoplasts is used as a technique by plant breeders and growers for propagation. It is critical in some modern plant breeding approaches, specifically biotechnology, in which genetic alterations are conducted under aseptic conditions. The cell is the fundamental unit of structure and function of a plant, containing all the genetic information. Tissues and even single cells can be nurtured to develop into full plants. In biotechnology, it is critical to be able to nurture a single cell into a full plant in order to apply some of the sophisticated techniques such as gene transfer or transformation. The technique of tissue culture may be used to assist plant breeders who realize wide crosses to be able to nurture young embryos into full plants. Plant germplasm of vegetatively propagated species may be maintained in germplasm banks using the tissue culture technique (see Box 7.1).