Status of tissue culture technology in India

India is reported to have one of the largest groups of tissue culture scientists in the world. Most of the research is directed towards the development of improved plants for agriculture, horticulture and forestry using tissue culture methods.
The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, New Delhi is playing a vital role in promoting research in the area of plant tissue culture. Several laboratories are being supported by providing funds for development of tissue culture technology for the improvement of crop plants.

The important Biotechnology centres are

i. Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi.
ii. Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai.
iii. Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic plants (CIMAP), Lucknow.
iv. Dr.M.S. Swaminathan Research Institute (MSSRI), Chennai.

Applications of plant tissue culture

• Several commercial establishments now routinely use micropropagation for different foliage and ornamental plants.
• Through tissue culture methods using bud proliferation and multiple shoot formation, ornamental plants are produced in large numbers.
• Virus free germplasm are produced through apical meristem culture eg. banana.
• Artificial synthetic seeds are produced through somatic embryogenesis.
• Plant tissue culture is an important technique for the production of secondary metabolites in large quantities.
• Tissue culture helps in induction of haploidy in anther culture ie. useful for mutation breeding, triploidy through endosperm culture for inducing parthenocarpic fruits and polyploidy for increase in biomass or yield.
• Embryo culture technique is applied to overcome embryo abortion, seed dormancy and self-sterility in seeds.
• In recent years, plant tissue culture methods are employed in plants for the introduction of foreign gene into plant cells through DNA coated microparticles and delivering these particles into a host cell by using a gene gun.
• Protoplasmic fusion encourages genomes of incompatible crops to come together to form somatic hybrids.
• Plant tissue culture is applied in the area of plant physiological and biochemical research to study the cell cycle, metabolism in cells, nutritional, morphogenetical and developmental studies in plants.
• By plant tissue culture techniques, a plant cell of potato and tomato were brought together through protoplasmic fusion and the hybrid cell was made to develop into a pomato plant. In pomato, the stem bears the tubers and the branches produced tomatoes.