Cloning: A tool for Plant Propagation and the Conservation of Plants

Question 1

What is cloning?

Answer 1

A technique used to make exact genetic copies of living things. Is a natural process in plants that we have been able to exploit and hijack for our own benefit.

Question 2

What is plant cell tissue and organ culture?

Answer 2

Involves growing plant cells, organs or whole plants in favourable nutrients and physical environment. Plant hormones can be used to control developmental processes.

Question 3

What are the main uses of plant cell tissue and organ culture?

Answer 3

Micropropagation, germplasm storage, disease elimination from high value cultivars, transport and quarantine inspection and genetic improvement.

Question 4

What is microproagation?

Answer 4

Is a rapid multiplication method. The true to type propagation of a selected genotype using in vitro tissue culture technique. Speeds up the simple, cutting-cloning process.

Question 5

For what group of crop plants is microproagation most useful and why?

Answer 5

High value crop plants, where the uniformity of the crop is critical and where the crops take a long time to mature.

Question 6

How do adventitious and axillary bud culture differ?

Answer 6

Auxillary bud relies on preformed meristems. Whilst adventitious uses hormonal manipulation to form its own meristems, either directly via meristematic (like) cells, or indirectly via the formation of a callus from somatic cells.

Question 7

What are the stages in the commercial micropropagation of plants using organogenesis?

Answer 7

0. The preparative stage - establishing microbe free stock plants
1. The initiation stage - inducing shoot development
2. Proliferation stage - proliferation of shoots
3. Shoot elongation and root induction stage - shoots begin to fully develop and roots begin to form
4. Transfer to glasshouse conditions - a slow acclimation proccess

Question 8

How can plant germplasm be stored in vitro?

Answer 8

In tissue culture or in cryopreservation

Question 9

How can meristem culture be used to produce disease free plants and make germplasm transport easier?

Answer 9

Low volume and easy to observe

Question 10

Describe organogenesis

Answer 10

The formation of meristems to get shoots, which you then induce to form roots.