Culturing techniques plants

An alternative route of taxol production under investigation entails the use of plant cell culture techniques. Plant cell culture is considered to be an economically viable production route for plant-derived drugs, if the drug commands a market value in excess of 1000 2000/kg. While many commonly used plant-derived metabolites fall into this category, plant cell culture has not... 

PLATE 3 Cell culture of plants now takes place in individual containers cared for by hand. Automation of plant cell culture using chemical engineering techniques could improve the yields and economics of plant cell culture and expand the range of its applications in the production of new species and hybrids. Courtesy, Monsanto Company. 

Stavarek, S.J. Rains, D.W. (19846) Cell culture techniques Selection and physiological studies of salt tolerance. In Salinity Tolerance in Plants Strategies for Crop Improvement, ed. R.C. Staples and G.H. Toeniessen, pp. 321-34. New York Wiley. 

The hybrid is able to produce more alkaloids than the basic callus, which is an undifferentiated mass of cells. Alkaloid production in cell cultures can be more successful with the immobihzation of plant cells and enzymes and by using bioreactor systems . Alkaloid produced in cell cultures can be isolated directly from this culture or from young plants grown from this culture. More than 250 alkaloids are reported to be produced by cell-culture techniques. Only a limited number of species have been researched in this respect. The species studied are known to produce alkaloids with special use in applications. The most researched alkaloids produced by cell cultures are mentioned in Table 25. 

Fong, K. H., Ulrich, A. (1969). Growing potato plants by the water culture technique. Amer Potato J., 46,269-212. 

The chemical synthesis of natural flavours started some time ago with the synthesis of coumarin in 1868 and vanillin in 1874 [7]. The development of the petrochemical industry and the availability of cheap oil has meant that most of the plant-derived products are now synthesised from crude oil. In addition, flavours can now be produced using microbial cultures. Thus, to achieve sustainable development plants will have to provide many of the products currently produced from petrochemicals, including flavours. In this chapter the possible use of plant tissue culture techniques and processes in the sustainable production of flavours is outlined and discussed. 

The plant cell culture technique of micropropagation of flavour-producing plants will be able to help with their agricultural cultivation and will relieve the pressure on the wild populations. Micropropagation will be able to propagate those plants where conventional propagation is difficult or will be to multiply elite stock. This may be required if demand for natural flavours continues to increase. 

Embryo cultures may be established from embryos removed from sterilized seeds, ovules, or fruits. The embryos produced from cell culture technique, known as somatic embryos, can be isolated and germinated to provide one plant per explant. Embryo culture can be employed for the rapid production of seedlings from seeds which have a protracted dormancy period. The method has many potential advantages over traditional propagation systems, such as fast turnaround, genetic uniformity, mass production, and propagation of disease-free plants. 

Initially plant cell culture techniques progressed more slowly than those for animal cells, as did procedures for the isolation of plant cell organelles. Technical difficulties have now largely been overcome and culturing plant embryos has now found important commercial applications. 

Biosynthetic research relating to the isoquinoline family was extremely successful, with such important members as morphine [3, 14], codeine [3, 15] or berberine [3, 14,16-18]. Extensive efforts have provided details pertaining to multiple sets of enzymes participating in the biosynthesis of the alkaloids above, in many cases with the help of plant cell suspension culture techniques. Since 1988, when the breakthrough in cloning of cDNA from alkaloid biosynthesis occurred [19, 20], a significant number of enzymes known from the indoles and isoquinolines biosynthesis have been isolated, their biochemical properties described and the majority of their corresponding cDNAs cloned and functionally over-expressed in non-plant hosts such as Escherichia coli, yeast or insect cells. 

In terms of in situ adsorption, although none of the solid adsorbents for non-aqueous phase tested to date are entirely satisfactory for the selective separation of secondary metabolites formed by plant cells, the result obtained so far have been encouraging enough to stimulate the search for more selective solid adsorbent material. The most important advantages of the two-phase culture techniques are that it increases productivity by removing the feedback regula-... 

Despite this area s promise there are some obstacles and limitations that must be solved, or at least considered, as plant-based proteins move toward the marketplace. The most intrinsic drawback for protein production in plants is time. When a protein is expressed in a whole plant, its production is linked directly to the development of that plant, often from seedling (or plantlet) to mature plant. In cell culture techniques, where cells are growing at maximal rates in an artificial environment, the time scale for producing a batch of protein is on the... 

Yeoman, M.M., Tissue (callus) cultures techniques, in Plant Tissue and Cell Culture, Botanical Monograph 11, Street, H.E., Ed., Blackwell, Oxford, 1973, pp. 31-58. 

Cells are grown either in suspension in a free or immobilized form 102), or by adherence to a solid surface 100). Materials used for promoting surface-dependent cell growth are glasses, metals, plastics, carbohydrate polymers etc. the media used contain substances such as blood plasma, amniotic fluids, tissue extracts, etc.103). Recent developments in animal cell culture are aimed at the improvement of strains and culture techniques, medium optimization, and scale-up. In contrast to plant cell culture, animal cell culture has already found its technical application. Large-scale... 

Figure 2. Tissue culture crop improvement. Sequence shows the integration of cell biology techniques into crop improvement. Hurdles to using the scheme include callus initiation, protoplast preparation, selection in culture, and plant regeneration.

There are several cultural techniques you can use to reduce the chances of nematode problems. Rotate crops that are not prone to the same types of nematodes to keep pest populations low. Use clean tools and other good sanitation practices to minimize the spread of nematodes. Dig plenty of organic matter into your soil to promote populations of beneficial fungi that feed on nematodes. Look for plant species and cultivars that are resistant to nematode damage. 

Plant tissue culture technique is one of the promising tools to ensure sustainable use of plant resources. There are three main strategies used in the biotechnological application of medicinal plants. The first is micropropagation for mass production of nurseries, the second is synthetic/artificial production of secondary metabolites of medicinal value and the third is molecular breeding for crop improvement. 

Opium poppy Papaver somniferum L., Papaveraceae) is one of the most important medicinal plants and has been cultivated since early centuries. Opium, the dried cytoplasm of a specialized internal secretory system called the laticifer, is normally collected from the unripe capsule. It is the source for the commercial production of medicinally important alkaloids, morphine, codeine, thebaine, noscapine and papaverine [130, 131], Fig. (61). Morphine, which has strong addictive property, is still the most effective analgesic for the treatment of mortal cancer patients in modem medicine. Codeine is commonly used as an antitussive. However, field cultivation of this plant has been limited since 1953 by the United Nations Opium Conference Protocol to prevent narcotic crimes. Therefore, establishing tissue culture technique for the production of morphinan alkaloids seems to be desirable not only for medicinal purpose but also for decreasing abuse of opiates. 

Finkle, B. Ulrich, J. In Handbook of Plant Cell Culture, Techniques for Propagation and Breeding, Evans, D.A. William, R.S. Ammirato, P.V. Yamada, Y., Eds Macmillan Publishing Company New York, 1983 Vol. 1, pp. 806-815. 

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