This volume, fifth in the series High-Tech and Micropropagation, contains 24 chapters arranged in the following three sections: I. Vegetables and Fruits: garlic, Amaranthus, Brassica oleracea, pepper, watermelon, cassava, banana, Myrtus communis, passionfruit, Polymnia sonchifolia, pepino, and spinach. II. Grasses: bamboos, Caustis dioica, Dendrocalamus, Miscanthus x giganteus, sugarcane. III. Trees: Aegle marmelos, Eucalyptus, Fraxinus excelsior, Juglans cinerea, Pinus virginiana, Prosopis, and Ulmus. This book is of use to research workers, advanced students, and teachers in the fields of horticulture, forestry, botany, and plant biotechnology in general, and also to individuals interested in industrial micropropagation.

Micropropagation has become a reliable and routine approach for large-scale rapid plant multiplication, which is based on plant cell, tissue and organ culture on well defined tissue culture media under aseptic conditions. A lot of research efforts are being made to develop and refine micropropagation methods and culture media for large-scale plant multiplication of several number of plant species. However, many forest and fruit tree species still remain recalcitrant to in vitro culture and require highly specific culture conditions for plant growth and development. The recent challenges on plant cell cycle regulation and the presented potential molecular mechanisms of recalcitrance are providing excellent background for understanding on totipotency and what is more development of micropropagation protocols. For large-scale in vitro plant production the important attributes are the quality, cost effectiveness, maintenance of genetic fidelity, and long-term storage. The need for appropriate in vitro plant regeneration methods for woody plants, including both forest and fruit trees, is still overwhelming in order to overcome problems facing micropropagation such as somaclonal variation, recalcitrant rooting, hyperhydricity, polyphenols, loss of material during hardening and quality of plant material. Moreover, micropropagation may be utilized, in basic research, in production of virus-free planting material, cryopreservation of endangered and elite woody species, applications in tree breeding and reforestation.

This volume, fifth in the series High-Tech and Micropropagation, contains 24 chapters arranged in the following three sections: I. Vegetables and Fruits: garlic, Amaranthus, Brassica oleracea, pepper, watermelon, cassava, banana, Myrtus communis, passionfruit, Polymnia sonchifolia, pepino, and spinach. II. Grasses: bamboos, Caustis dioica, Dendrocalamus, Miscanthus x giganteus, sugarcane. III. Trees: Aegle marmelos, Eucalyptus, Fraxinus excelsior, Juglans cinerea, Pinus virginiana, Prosopis, and Ulmus. This book is of use to research workers, advanced students, and teachers in the fields of horticulture, forestry, botany, and plant biotechnology in general, and also to individuals interested in industrial micropropagation.

This volume covers recent advances in the vegetative propagation of woody plants by tissue culture. A wide range of topics relevant to micropropagation of woody plants are discussed by renowned international scientists. These include cellular contro of morphogenesis, light regimes in tissue culture, maturation and rejuvenation, synthetic seed, genetics of micropropagated plants, haploid embryogenesis, protoplast culture, and acclimatization of ex vitro woody plants. In addition to micropropagation of selected woody plants, both gymnosperms and angiosperms, this volume also includes in vitro genetic selection, strategic planning for application of biotechnology for genetics and breeding, and clonal options for woody plant improvement. A balanced view of both perspectives and limitations of woody plant micropropagation is presented.

This book is based mainly on invited and offered papers presented at the Second International Symposium on Bacterial and Bacteria-like Contaminants of Plant Tissue Cultures held at University College, Cork, Ireland in September 1996, with additional invited papers. The First International Symposium on Bacterial and Bacteria-like Contaminants of Plant Tissue Cultures was held at the same venue in 1987 and was published as Acta Horticulturae volume 225, 1988. In the intervening years there have been considerable advances in both plant disease diagnostics and in the development of structured approaches to the management of disease and microbial contamination in micropropagation. These approaches have centred on attempts to separate, spatially, the problems of disease transmission and laboratory contamination. Disease-control is best achieved by establishing pathogen-free cultures while laboratory contamination is based on subsequent good working practice. Control of losses due to pathogens and microbial contamination in vitro addresses, arguably, the most importance causes of losses in the industry; nevertheless, losses at and post establishment can also be considerable due to poor quality microplants or micro-shoots. In this symposium, a holistic approach to pathogen and microbial contamination control is evident with the recognition that micropropagators must address pathogen and microbial contamination in vitro, and diseases and microplant failure at establishment. There is increasing interest in establishing beneficial bacterial and mycorrhizal association with microplants in vitro and in vivo.

Micropropagation is a technology that has developed within the past 30 years. Earlier overviews of plant tissue culture have reviewed micropropagation as just one of many tissue culture procedures in use. Since the applications of this technology have multiplied so rapidly in recent years, we decided that a specific overview of the technology was now appropriate Our book begins with a review of the general principles of tissue culture as applied to micropropagation. This review is concise since the general topic has been covered in numerous other books and reviews. The basic principles of laboratory design and construction are summarized in the second chapter. Common problems encountered in micropropagation, both during and after culture, are examined in detail in four chapters. As micropropagation developed from a laboratory curiosity to a commercial industry, different considerations became important. These are discussed in two chapters. An attempt has been made to assess the current status of commercial production around the world. This has been difficult because commercial production figures are often closely guarded and little has been done to collect statistics on this growing industry. Applications to a broad range of crops are discussed in a series of chapters. These try to report the state of the art in each area, but since applications for some crops are much more advanced than for others, the focus of these chapters varies depending upon the progress that has been made.

This greatly expanded and updated edition of a classic reference work comprises two volumes offering a compendium of methods for multiplying orchids through micropropagation. A detailed collection of procedures and methods for multiplying orchids, including organ, tissue, and cell culture techniques in vitro Presents classic techniques that have been in the forefront of orchid propagation since they were first developed in 1949 Detailed procedures are appended with tables and complete recipes for a large number of culture media Includes many illustrations, chemical formulas, historical vignettes, and seldom seen illustrations of people, orchids, apparatus and tools “... an excellent resource like its predecessor, ...both informative and captivating, and served as a reminder of why we go to such extremes in our quest to propagate these plants.” American Orchid Society, 2009 “...in the sense of its universal value and importance, this Second Edition will undoubtedly be considered a classic, if only because it will serve as a sole and invaluable resource on the subject.” Plant Science Bulletin, 2009

Second in the series, High-Tech and Micropropagation, this work covers the micropropagation of trees and fruit-bearing plants, such as poplar, birches, larch, American sweetgum, black locust, Sorbus, sandalwood, Quercus, cedar, Persian walnut, date palm, cocoa, Citrus, olive, apple, pear, peach, plum, cherry, papaya, pineapple, kiwi, Japanese persimmon, grapevine, strawberry, and raspberry. The importance and distribution of conventional propagation and in vitro studies on individual species are discussed. In particular detail, the transfer of in vitro plants to the greenhouse or the field, and the prospects of commercial exploitation are examined. The book will be of use to advanced students, research workers and teachers in horticulture, forestry and plant biotechnology in general, and also to individuals interested in industrial micropropagation.

Thirty-four Populus biotechnology chapters, written by 85 authors, are comprised in 5 sections: 1) in vitro culture (micropropagation, somatic embryogenesis, protoplasts, somaclonal variation, and germplasm preservation); 2) transformation and foreign gene expression; 3) molecular biology (molecular/genetic characterization); 4) biotic and abiotic resistance (disease, insect, and pollution); and 5) biotechnological applications (wood properties, flowering, phytoremediation, breeding, commercialization, economics, and bioethics).

The observation that plant cells grown in a nutrient solution aseptically have an innate potential to give rise to whole plant led to the foundation for the technique known as tissue culture. The knowledge that thousands of plantlets would be obtained from a bit of plant tissue has paved way to the development of a industry for plant propagation. During the past 40 years enormous efforts and research for refining plant tissue culture techniques has led to the development of a technology. Since the application of micropropagation has multiplied so rapidly in recent years, a brief overview of the technology seems to be appropriate. This overview on micropropagation is concise since the topic has been covered in numerous other books and reviews. The book serves as a ready reckoner or as an instant note for both UG and PG students of various universities. The book starts with an introductory chapter followed by the description on the technique of tissue culture, various methods of micropropagation, and different phases of micropropagation. The book has been concluded by description on the bottleneck of micropropagation viz. soma clonal variations. Readers will find the book to be a comprehensive and valuable resource for studying micropropagation approaches.