Applications of Plant Tissue Culture: 1. Development of Clonal and Micro-Propagation through the multiplication of genetically identical plants or crops. It is very used in horticulture, in the crops which have long seed dormancy, tree species, orchids, and many fruit plants.
2. Production of biomass energy which is useful in forestry.
3. Increased production of secondary metabolites which helps in isolation of the constituents for drug discovery as well as various pharmaceutical formulations.
4. Procurement of Genetic Variability which is due to cells of various ploidy levels and genetic constitution of the initial explant or also may be developed due to different cultural conditions. It helps for the production of hybrid plants by polyploidy, mutation, and hybridization techniques. It is a great application in the field of horticulture as well as in Agronomy. It helps in the development of useful characters such as resistance to a particular disease, herbicide resistance, and stress tolerance.
5. Somatic Embryogenesis and Synthetic Seed development by which the mass production of adventitious embryos occurs that ultimately develop into complete plantlet in maturing media. This method is useful for the production of disease-free propagules as well as the production of asexually propagating plants. It is an innovative technique in the agriculture field.
6. Breaking Dormancy is further challenging for hard-coated seeds. By this culture technique, the seed dormancy period is reduced and the breeding cycle is shortened which improves the early growth of plants.
7. Propagation of haploid Plants through anther or pollen culture (androgenesis) or ovaries or ovule culture (gynogenesis).
8. Establishment of Somatic Hybrids through Somatic hybridization, i.e., the asexual hybridization. It is carried out by the fusion of protoplast cells by hybridization. Products of fusion between two protoplasts (heterokaryon) are cultured to regenerate a new somatic hybrid plant of the desired genotype.
9. Development of Transgenic Plants by carrying genes for different traits like insect resistance, herbicide tolerance, delayed ripening, increased amino acid and vitamin content, improved soil quality, etc.
10. Germplasm Conservation through the in-vitro method is gaining importance. The storage collection provides a cost-effective alternative to growing plants under field conditions, nurseries, or greenhouses. Recently, pollen preservation is very important for endangered plant species.
Make sure you also check our other amazing Article on : Conservation of Medicinal Plants