Module 6: Cloning and Biotechnology Flashcards
What are the 2 types of plant cloning?
vegetative propagation and micropropagation
Define what vegetative propagation is
a form of asexual reproduction where new genetically identical individuals develop from non-reproductive tissues of a parent plant
What is a perennating organ?
an organ in a plant that stores food to help the plant survive from 1 season to the next while its dormant
Natural methods of vegetative propagation:
What is a Rhizome?
What is a stolon?
make 2 points
rhizome-specialised horizontal underground stems that store food and produce new shoots and roots from buds along the rhizome
stolon-horizontal stems that grow along soil surface away from parent plant , they have nodes that can root to form new plants upon contact with ground
Natural methods of vegetative propagation:
What are suckers , tubers and bulbs?
suckers-shoots that emerge from shallow root buds of parent plant
tubers-form when the tip of a stem becomes swollen with food so buds on tuber surface can develop into new shoots
bulbs-form when a leaf becomes swollen with stored food and the bud inside the bulb can form new shoots
Give 5 advantages of vegetative propagation
-its fast
-its cost effective
-it ensures high yield
-maintains quality of crops as offspring have identical genetic properties to parent
-allows plants to survive adverse conditions and regenerate each season
Give 2 disadvantages of vegetative propagation
-results in lack of genetic variation in offspring
-plants are more susceptible to disease/pests/climate change
What does micropropagation do?
produces many identical plant clones from a single parent using a tissue culture
Give the first 3 stages of micropropagation
1)small tissue samples are taken from the parent plant , these are called explants
2)the explant cells are sterilised to remove and inhibit growth of contaminants
3)sterilised explant cells are cultured on a nutrient rich medium
Why are tissue samples(explants) taken from the stems and roots of the parent plant?
What does sterilising explant cells reduce the risk of?
What does the nutrient rich medium supply for the explant cells and what does this support?
because meristem cells are present here and meristem cells are totipotent so can differentiate into any type of cell
reduces risk of widespread infection and produces healthier crops
supplies vitamins and minerals , sugars and hormones that support cell division and growth
Give the final 2 steps of micropropagation
4)sterilised cells divide to form an undifferentiated mass of cells called a callus , the callus cells are then transferred to a new medium with specific conditions to encourage root and shoot formation
5)these cells then differentiate into plantlets which are then moved to a growth medium (soil) so they can develop into mature plants that are identical to parent plant
Give 4 applications of micropropagation
-enables rapid and large scale propagation of plants that naturally reproduce slowly/are rare or endangered
-used for producing disease free clones so we can preserve valuable genetic resources
-allows mass production of genetically modified plants (eg herbicide resistant crops)
-allows us to produce seedless plants or plants that are difficult to cultivate from seeds
Give 4 advantages of micropropagation
-ensures reliable inheritance of traits such as those that give a high yield as all offspring are identical to parent
-can be done all times of year
-more space efficient than other methods
-rapidly produces a large number of mature plants
Give 4 disadvantages of micropropagation
-crops are vulnerable to disease and environmental change due to low genetic diversity
-may unintentionally propagate undesirable traits
-expensive and requires skilled technicians so is less feasible on a small scale
-explants and plantlets are vulnerable to infection
