IN VITRO CONSERVATION OF THREATENED PLANTS
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P.Sivagurunathan II M.sc Environmental Biotechnology
INTRODUCTION What is threatened species. In vitro conservation. In vitro conservation in tissue culture. Uses of in vitro conservation. Advantage of invitro conservation. Disadvantage of in-vitro conservation.
WHAT IS THREATENED SPECIES? A species believe to be at significant
risk of extinction in the forseeable future,because of stochastic, deterministic or both factors or by virtue of inherent rarity.
Ex;Origanum dictamus etc,.
In vitro conservation
Conservation of plant germplasm through micropropagation or storage of synseeds, embryos, buds, or meristems is known as invitro conservation
Invitropropagation also has arole in the exsitu management of threatened speices It can be useful when seeds or spores are not available because they are not produced by the plant sufficient.
IN VITRO CULUTRE METHOD Propagation of Vrieseo reitzii. It is an endemic & endangerd promeliad from atlantic forest. Adventious shoot from nodule clusters cultures of Vrieseo reitzii . Induction of V. reitzii nodule cultures from basal region of leaves inoculated in culture medium free of PGR . the transference of these cultures to MS medium with GA3 promoted the multiplication of adventious shoots , and the development of plantlets. plantlets higher than 2.5cm were acclimatized. There results open new possibilities for the promeliad mass propagation and conservation.
Uses of invitro conservation
Tissue culture lines that are used to propagate threatened taxa should be preserved for future use. A number of threatened species of seed plants have been propagated through tissue culture to provide materials for ex-situ population, research and reintroduction, Because invitro propagation can provide only clonal material , It is dealing with threatened taxa to maintain as much diversity as possible through the propagation process.
In-vitro technique have been used successfully with a numer of species ,both tropical &temperate region. It is could be useful tool for collecting germplasm from pteritophyte gametophyte and bryophyte sporophyte for exsitu conservation.
Advantage of in-vitro conservation Most of in vitro methods have several advantage ,such as Grater safety from viral attack, Lower cost, Accomodation for larger number 1500 wild taxa have been stored in invitro in various institutions around the world.
Dis advandage of invitro conservation
Invitro storage is labour intensive and costly. Since subculturing is necessary at regular intervals to test viability of stored tissue The annual average total cost for conservation for one acession is estimated to be $82.92. The risk of somoclonal variations that develop under invitro condition. Very rarely callus are stored in invitro.