Plant Biotechnology: Promises and Challenges

Abstract

Development of procedures in cell biology to regenerate plants from single cells in any desired quantity provides the prerequisite for the practical use of plant tissue culture and genetic engineering in crop improvement. Such regenerating cell cultures are used for selection of mutants and for DNA transformation experiments. DNA transfer by means of engineered Ti and Ri plasmids has become an established technique for the rapidly growing list of dicotyledonous plants. Considerable success has also been achieved in making gene transfer techniques independent of cell culture methods. These techniques have given the opportunity to create, characterise and select plant cultivars which cannot be obtained by traditional breeding methods. The exploitation of plant cell cultures for production of pharmaceuticals, natural products of commercial importance and mass propagation of high-value crops by automation, have developed into an important industry with considerable potential for future. This paper discusses the recent advances and applications of plant biotechnology in agriculture and industry and the challenges the still exist.