Every gardener should keep up with what's going on in tissue culture

Flower & Garden Magazine, Feb-March, 1985 by Herb Saltford

Possibilities may be well night limitless, with encouraging tests thus far on bulb and root crops like hyacinths, lilies, narcissus, caladiums, gladiolus, dahlias, carrots, garlic, potatoes, and taro, as well as various ferns and orchids, aroids, tobacco, alfalfa, sugar cane, tomatoes, barley, rice, asparagus and strawberries. Dr. August Kehr, addressing the American Association of Nurserymen, said he is convinced that plant tissue culture methods now being developed will enable plant breeders of the future to accomplish as much in the space of a small room as now requires huge fields, and that the desired results will be achieved in a fraction of the time now needed.

Ideas For The Future

Plant cell scientists are looking far ahead. At Cornell University's Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, geneticists are employing a nitrogen fixing bacterium to make fertilizer in sun-powered "factories" on plant stems. And they have an alga that can "teach chloroplasts in leaves to work better. Thus they are close to engineering an energy-efficient crop plant that can protect itself against pests and make its own fertilizer.

Out of such research, scientists are confident that they will be able to create new crops to fill many requirements. Beneficial traits can be introduced by splicing genes from one cell into another. Then after regeneration of whole plants from the single cell, the modified trait is permanently incorporated into each and every cell of the plant. Enormous future advantages to agriculture are thus in prospect.

This seems to be getting far afield from basic tissue culture, but it all stems from that development. Growers and gardeners alike will reap benefits.