Economic importance of artificial propagation
Answers
Explanation:
Artificial vegetative propagation is the process of growing plants applying artificial techniques such as layering, grafting, and cutting. This method is more beneficial as it boosts the quality, yield, and disease resistance in plants and thereby plant products. Thus, this method is economically viable.
Tissue culture is a method of artificial propagation in plants. In this method, a plant tissue is grown in an environment comprising of all the nutrients, hormones, light and so on, as needed for plant growth. This method helps to grow healthy and perfect replica of the original plant in a very short period of time.
In this topic, you will learn more about artificial vegetative propagation.
Hybridisation
When two different varieties or species of plants are mixed to get a new breed of plants containing the characteristics of both parents, the process is called hybridisation or cross breeding.
Hybridisation can be Intervarietal, Interspecific or Intergeneric.
It can be done by cross pollination or somatic cell hybridisation.
Somatic Cell Hybridisation
Vegetative cells of 2 different plants isolated→ cell walls are carefully dissolved and cell contents are fused together→ fused cells grown under ideal conditions→ replanted when they develop into small plants.
Example: triticale is developed from tritium (wheat) and rye (secale).
Benefits of Hybridisation
Hybrid plants are generally diseaseresistant and pest resistant.
Can grow on different types of soil.
Show early maturity and produce larger yields.
More nutritional and economic value.
Shorter life cycle.
Micropropagation
Cells from Meristematic tissue or vegetative portion of plant isolated→ cultured in nutrient rich medium under controlled conditions→ new plants produced.
Uses:
Plants with long seed dormancy or slow breeders are grown this way.
Disease-free cells can be isolated and used to yield disease free plants.
Offspring genetically similar to the parent.
Genetic and cytoplasmic modification can be done.
Limitations of Micropropagation:
Very expensive.
Not suited for all species of plants.
Can result in undesired genetic modification.