Articles
POTENTIAL OF IN VITRO CULTURE TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVEMENT OF FLORICULTURAL CROPS
A major economic application has been in the area of clonal multiplication of orchids, ferns, and bulb crops.
The spectrum of ornamental crops successfully propagated since 1974 and further potential applications of in vitro culture in floricultural plant breeding are presented.
The objective of any plant breeding program is to utilize existing genetic variability or to obtain new genetic variability and to manipulate this variation in specific ways.
Progress is frequently limited by the time required to develop and select improved lines, the amount of space available in which to grow the plants, and the number of personnel available.
Review of recent research utilizing the technique of in vitro culture of organs, tissues, cells, and protoplasts indicates that there is potential for its use in improvement of floricultural crops.
It may now be feasible to manipulate plant material in vitro for culture under defined conditions, for rapid clonal propagation (Murashige, 1974), for induction of haploids (Kasha, 1974; Sink and Padmanabhan, 1976), for induction and selection of mutants (Nickell and Heinz, 1974; Broertjes et al., 1976), for somatic hybridization (Carlson et al., 1972), for elimination of sterility barriers (North, 1976), for elimination of disease, and for storage of germplasm (Bajaj, 1976). The potential use of cell and protoplast cultures for plant improvement or in agriculture has been recently reviewed by Scowcroft (1975), Bottino (1975), Bajaj (1974), and Carlson and Polacco (1975). Although the promise of plant cell and protoplast culture technology appears to lie in the areas that are related to extending the range of genetic variability–that is, parasexual hybridization and mutant selection, Carlson and Polacco (1975) indicate that much input, analysis, and evaluation from a number of other disciplines will be required in the next decade before these techniques will be of major importance in plant breeding.
A major economic application of in vitro techniques has been in the area of clonal multiplication.
Ornamental plants with demonstrated potential for clonal multiplication through tissue culture since Murashige’s tabulation (Murashige, 1974) are:
Agavaceae: Cordyline terminalis (Kunisaki, 1975), Dracaena deremensis (Debergh, 1975)
Amaryllidaceae: Alstroemeria (Ziv et al., 1973),