artificial cloning in plants

• what is the process of artificial cloning in plants called?

  micropropagation
• what is micropropagation?

  process of making large numbers of genetically identical offspring from a single parent using tissue culture techniques
• when is micropropagation used?

  used to clone plants when-

  • plants don't readily produce seeds
  • when plants don't respond well to natural cloning
  • when a plant is rare
  • when a plant has been GM with difficulty
  • when a plant is required to be pathogen free
• describe the process of micropropagation

  • extract explant of meristem tissue in sterile conditions
  • sterilise the explant by immersing in bleach
  • place explant in sterile culture medium containing hormones (auxin and cytokinins) and nutrients, this stimulates mitosis
  • cells proliferate, forming a callus
  • callus is divided, individual cells transported to a new culture medium containing different medium of hormones/nutrients, stimulating identical plantlets to grow
  • plantlets transferred to compost where they grow into plants
  • planted out and produce crop
• what are the advantages of micropropagation?

  • rapid production of large numbers of plants with known genetic make-up
  • disease free plants produced by culturing meristem
  • increases number of rare/endangered plants
  • way of growing infertile plants/plants difficult to grow from seed
• what are the disadvantages of micropropagation?

  • monoculture- susceptible to same diseases
  • expensive and requires skilled workers
  • vulnerable to infections during the production process
  • if source material contains virus, all other clones infected