Tissue culture company begins selling plants directly to growers

When Yongjian Chang built North American Plants in 1998, the company had 800 square feet of lab space to propagate plants through a process known as tissue culture — essentially cloning them to meet nursery demand for ornamental trees and shrubs.

It’s come a long way in the years since, with five expansions bringing lab space to some 23,000 square feet and a switch in 2006 to focus on berries and rootstocks for tree fruit and nuts.

Today, North American Plants produces 3 million blueberry, blackberry and raspberry plants and 10 million rootstocks for tree fruit and nuts annually.

Increasing demand for disease-resistant rootstocks, particularly in the apple industry, has the company poised for another change: selling directly to

In vitro Propagation of Critically Endangered Endemic Rhaponticoides mykalea by Axillary Shoot Proliferation

Turkey is one of the richest countries in variability of flora. It has nearly 9000 plant species about 3000 of which are endemic [1]. Asteraceae, is represented by 50 species in Turkey with an endemism of nearly 54% [2]. Rhaponticoides mykalea (Hub.-Mor.) M.V. Agab. & Greuter which belongs to the Asteraceae family, falls within the CR (Critically Endangered) category in the Red Data Book of Turkey [1]. While R. mykalea (Hub.-Mor.) was classified under the section Centaurea as Centaurea mykalea (Hub.-Mor.) before now. Today it has been separated from the section Centaurea [3]. It spreads very scarce in Kuşadası (Aydın), Muğla and Isparta, and faces with the danger of extinction. R. mykalea that has very limited number of individuals is under strong anthropogenic pressure such as the gradually increase in ongoing urbanization due to rapid developments of tourism sector, the conversion of natural habitats into human dominated lands, the over-grazing and collecting capitula of R. mykalea by local people for food. The species has already been under the threat of extinction and the situation above will increase the risk of extinction of this species even more [4]. For this reason, local protection measures and global conservation strategies are necessary [5].

Nowadays, the conservation of wild plant genetic resources is very important for preventing a decrease in genetic variability. Conservation of the endemic or threatened plants is carried out using different strategies. In vitro culture is an

In vitro Regeneration, Acclimatization and Antimicrobial Studies of Selected Ornamental Plants

Tissue culture has been applied to diverse research techniques such as viral elimination, clonal propagation, gene conservation, in vitro fertilization, mutation, induction for genetic diversity, genetic transformation, protoplast isolation and somatic hybridization, secondary metabolite production and other related techniques. The commercial production of ornamental plants is growing worldwide. Its monetary value has significantly increased over the last two decades and there is a great potential for continued further growth in both domestic and international markets. About 156 ornamental genera are propagated through tissue culture in different commercial laboratories worldwide. About 212.5 million plants including 157 million ornamental plants amounting to 78% of the total production were reported [1]. These plants are over exploited due to their high medicinal value and hence, propagation of the plants by tissue culture may be mandatory, which offers a greater potential to deliver large quantities of disease-free, true-to-type healthy stock within a short span of time. Biotechnological interventions for in vitro regeneration, mass micropropagation and gene transfer methods in forest tree species have been practiced with success, especially in the last decade. Against the background of the limitations of long juvenile phases and lifespan, developments of plant regeneration protocols of ornamental species are gaining importance. Ornamental industry has applied immensely in vitro propagation approach for large-scale plant multiplication of elite superior varieties. During in vitro condition, plantlets are grown under fixed and controlled environment in sterile formulated medium which contained macronutrients, micronutrients, vitamins and plant growth regulators. After the plantlets reached optimum growth in the culture containers after

Micropropagation of Anthurium spp.

Micropropagation as an alternative method to conventional propagation, the culture of somatic cells, tissues and organs of plants under controlled conditions is a suitable way to produce a large number of progeny plants which are genetically identical to the stock plant in a short time. The important property of the plant cells is totipotency which is a capacity to produce the whole plant from different plant parts. Micropropagation has some features to be chosen in commercial production such as multiplicative capacity in a relatively short time, healthy and disease-free production capacity and ability to generate population during a year [1-5].

The genetic pattern of the plant is key element to select the propagation method. Using micropropagation techniques in plant biotechnology applications are costlier than conventional propagation methods. Propagation by using in vitro techniques instead of conventional methods offer some advantages like utilizing small pieces of plants called as explants to maintain the whole plant and increase their number. The main point is to evolve new strategies to

Aseptic Techniques in Plant Tissue Culture

Aseptic techniques in plant tissue culture from kumarkanika

Production of Useful Secondary Metabolites Through Regulation of Biosynthetic Pathway in Cell and Tissue Suspension Culture of Medicinal Plants

Medicinal herbs played important roles in human history, from ancient times to now. They have been used for thousands of years to cure diseases, colorize clothes, adjust food taste and keep healthy. It was recorded that, 61% of currently used small molecular drugs are derived from or inspired by natural products from medicinal herbs [1]. However, to cure disease, we need to harvest medicinal herbs, and use part of their tissue for extraction, such as root, leaves, seeds, flowers and so on. That will directly cause problems for the reproduction of these herbs. It has also been noted that the natural habitats have been destroyed due to human activities. With the modern city under construction, the enlarging need for natural resources and the serious pollution, the environment has been never so tough for the growth of medicinal herbs. In another word, the naturally growing medicinal herbs can’t fulfill the need of increasing market. Furthermore, the naturally grown medicinal herbs are also different from before, they are carrying more and more herbicide, insecticide and heavy metals, which will cause contamination to the extract and finally cause side effects. Besides, due to the complex structures of secondary metabolites, the chemical synthesis is proved to be cost-inefficient in most cases. Thus, how to produce enough medicinal herbal material in an appropriate manner becomes more and more urgent for the development of pharmaceutical industry all over the world.

In 1934, White proposed the theory of totipotency, and Steward proved the theory in 1952~1953 using carrot cells cultured in liquid media to regenerate whole plant. From then, the cell and tissue culture techniques are developed. As an alternative choice to produce active secondary metabolites, cell and tissue culture of medicinal herbs has obvious advantages:

1. The culture system doesn’t need much field which can be used for crop growing;
2. The system is not limited by whether and season changes.
3. The secondary metabolism can be

Plant tissue culture Medium

Plant tissue culture medium from Rinkesh Joshi

Effect of Additives on Micropropagation of an Endangered Medicinal Tree Oroxylum indicum L. Vent

Sonpatha (Oroxylum indicum (L.) Vent.) is a threatened medicinal tree species [1,2] belonging to family Bignoniaceae. It is valued for its antimicrobial, antiarthritic, anticancerous and antihepatitic properties possessed by its various parts. Root extract of this tree has been used for long in ayurvedic preparations like Dashmularisht and Chyawanprash [3,4].This tree possesses a flavonoid viz. Baicalein used to check proliferation of human breast cancer cell line MDA - MB - 435 [5]. Sonpatha grows in India, Sri Lanka, South China, Celebes, Philippines and Malaysia[6,7]. In India, it is distributed throughout the country up to an altitude of 1200 m and found mainly in ravine and moist places in the forests [8].Owing to indiscriminate collection, over exploitation and uprooting of whole plants with roots, this valuable tree has become vulnerable in different states of India like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharastra, M.P. and Chhatisgarh [9,10]. Hence research towards mass multiplication, conservation and higher production of the active compound under in vitro culture conditions is essential [11]. Few reports are available on the in vitro regeneration of the species [12,13]. Optimum factors influencing growth and morphogenesis vary with the genotype and types of explants used for micropropagation. [14]. Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with a high content of nitrate, ammonium and potassium is of widespread use in the successful culture of a wide variety of plants. Sometimes it requires supplementation of additional substances in the medium.

Application of additives is adapted to the cultural needs[15] i.e. objectives of the experimental studies like micropropagation, regeneration, cytodifferentiation, androgenesis, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites and biotransformation of cells as well as

Polyamines, Gelling Agents in Tissue Culture, Micropropagation of Medicinal Plants and Bioreactors

Currently, tissue cultures of species of agricultural importance have wide applicability in industrial production processes. Tissue culture is a name given to a set of techniques that allow the regeneration of cells, tissues and organs of plants, from segments of plant organs or tissues, using nutrient solutions in aseptic and controlled environment. This regeneration is based on the totipotency of plant cells. Totipotency is a capability indicating that plant cells, in different times, may express the potential to form a new multicellular individual. Tissue culture appears to be a good alternative to conventional propagation, requiring less physical space, with high multiplication rate, without incidence of pests and diseases during cultivation, and enabling higher control of the variables involved. Thus, in the in vitro environment, with the required stimuli and appropriate conditions, different cell types express different behaviors, possibly leading to cell multiplication and differentiation into a specific tissue, characterized by a form and a function, which may lead to the regeneration of a new individual.

The discovery of this feature in plant cells is indistinguishable from the first studies on tissue culture in the early twentieth century by Heberlandt in 1902, which were followed by

Tissue Culture Techniques for Native Amazonian Fruit Trees

The fruits of the Amazon have attracted great interest in recent years, both nationally and internationally, according to its exotic flavors and pleasant and varied ways to use its pulp by agribusiness [1], pharmaceutical industry [2], high vitamin and antioxidant content[3].

In recent decades, the production of native fruits of the Amazon showed significant growth, mainly due to expansion of area for fruit production. It is noteworthy that this activity has had little impact on native vegetation, since most of the orchards were planted in areas previously occupied by other crops for market problems or environmental issues and pressure for sustainable agriculture, ceased to be interesting for farmers [4].

The Amazon forest has large number of non-domesticated fruit species and a minority being exploited through crop in place of natural occurrence [5]. According to the