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IMPORTANCE OF TISSUE CULTURE IN AGRICULTURE Agricultural diversification to meet our future needs call for the adoption of new technologies in agriculture. Utilization of the best cultural practices, fertilization, pest control measures will not give the necessary results without the use of best planting material. Tissue culture is now a significant horticultural propagation method which has revolutionized the horticultural industry. Use of this technique should be co nsidered for mass propagation and the establishment o f disease free stock material. This type of material is not seasonal as it can be produced throughout the year in the laboratory. Results have been promising and the possibility of using tissue culture plantlets to improve banana cultivation in Mauritius is desirable. Most banana producing countries have now adopted this technology. Another crop which can benefit from tissue culture is the potato. Potato production in several Asian countries is based on tissue culture plantlets.
Tissue culture, micropropagation and growing in vitro are now significant horticultural propagation methods which are experiencing rapid acceptance and have revolutionized the horticultural industry. Tissue culture is an important new method of plant propagation available to growers. Farmers consider tissue culture for two reasons: (1) Mass production (2) To establish or maintain "virus-free" stock. Other uses include somatic hybridization, the induction and selection of mutants and biosynthesis of secondary products. ioreactors
Every year, excessive amount of grower time, labour and room are spent on unproductive seeds, cuttings and grafts, significant numbers of young plants are lost to viruses, bacteria, fungi, insects, animals or other environmental factors. Disease free plants derived from tissue culture can retrieve much of the time now lost by growers because of the higher percentage of clean, viable, mature plants produced.
Tissue culture plantlets are not immune to attack and disaster but by the time they are hardened off, are well started plants with a good root system and a supply of nutrients. Healthy plants are the first line of defence against diseases.
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Healthy plants can be grown in the laboratory at any time of the year. Tissue culture is not limited by the time of the year or weather. Working conditions in the laboratory are ideal and therefore conducive to year round production scheduling. It also saves an enormous amount of daily care required by conventional cuttings and seedlings.
For example establishment of new banana plantations can be done through 3 types of materials: (1) Large suckers (2) Small suckers (3) in-vitro plantlets The inconvenience of the first two lies in their carrying of pathogens and pests especially nematodes such as Radhopholus similis the banana borer C osmopolites sordidus ,
F usarium
,
4
races of
Oxysporum fsp cubense and viruses such as cucumber mosaic and bunchy top.
In Vitro plantlets provide an excellent alternative material free of these pests and diseases for use in areas of cultivation. The main advantages of in vitro plantlets are given below. 1. Plants can be rapidly multiplied from a mother plant of known desirable characters. 2. Selected and screened p lants can be maintained free from serious diseases and pests. 3. The use of in vitro plantlets in areas not infected with nematodes avoids the use of nematicides. 4.
The use of single-cycle high density banana plantations could be adopted more widely,
especially for the window market. The expected advantages of this practice are the following: very high yield in a short time, efficient controlled flowering and harvesting time. Saving of hand labour, the possible use of poor land marginal for permanent cultivation, saving expenditure on infrastructure. 5. 98% survival under field conditions. 6. Plants for in vitro plantlets grow faster in the early grow ing stages than those from sucker. 7. Uniformity of flowering. 8. Short harvesting period. 9. In comparison with the suckers, plants are cheaper and easier to propagate and transport.
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10. There are important advantages regarding germplasm conservation and the possibilities of international transfer. 11. The material produced is true to type and conform to the characters of the mother plants. 12. Increased yield of up to 20% as compared to conventional material. With the increased use of in vitro multiplication, the widespread presence of somaclonal variations has been detected from negligible levels up to 40% of a field.
IMPORTANCE OF TISSUE CULTURE IN MEDICINE Animal tissue culture role in medical filed are enormous. Tissue cultures are often used for the analysis of the cells themselves, the assessment of the cell's response to chemicals, or as a tool to produce cellular-derived protein products that really helps in medical advancement. As discussed before, animal tissue culture provides a way to produce monoclonal antibody that makes it possible to produce antibody that have specificity restricted to a certain pathogen. This discovery leads to the possibility of curing various diseases such as AIDS and cancer. Other application of animal tissue culture gives a predictable, rapid and responsive method for production of welltolerated and effective vaccines, with low levels of adverse effects.
Regenerative medicine This is a technology that cures the injured part of the body such as blood vessel by replacing it with a new one gained from culturing the same thing
Other important application of tissue culture in medicine include, 1. The production of organs from tissues of organs, this has helped in organ transplants to serve the life of many people with problems of various organs. 2. Tissue culture techniques have helped in the production of antibodies i.e. the use of the monoclonal antibodies to produce more antibodies that have longer life span. 3. Tissue culture methods have helped develop vaccines against virus such as poliomyelitis in virology studies. References
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ANON. (1994). High Powered Committee on Agricultural Diversification. Report of the Task Force on Seds and Planting Material. July 1994. ARIAS, O. (1993). Commercial Micropropagation of banana in Proceedings of the Workshop on Biotechnology Applications for Banana and Plantain Improvement, INIBAP, 1993, pp. 139-142. Carrel, A. & Burrows, M. T. (1910). Cultivation of adult tissues and organs outside of the body. J. AmMed . Ass. ss, 1379-81. Davidson, R. L. (1971). Regulation of gene expression in somatic cell hybrids: a review. In vitro 6, 411-26. Earle, W. R., Nettleship, A., Schilling, E. L., Stark, T. H., Straus, N. R., Brown, M. F. & Skelton, E. (1943). Production of malignancy in vitro. V. Results of injections of cultures into mice. J. Natn. C ancer Inst . 4, 213-27.
