Progress In Plant Protoplast Research

Proceedings of the 7th International Protoplast Symposium, Wageningen, The Netherlands, December 6-11, 1987

Protoplast culture: preparatory studies; Protoplast culture: induction of sustained divisions; Protoplast culture: plants from protoplast - derived clones; Protoplast fusion and somatic hybridisation; Cytoplasmic hybridisation and organelle transfer; Genetic transformation; Somaclonal variation; Mutants and stable variants; Protoplasts for studies in virology; Plant microbe interactions; Physiological studies; Cytology and ultrastructure; Protoplast as tools in biotechnology; The use of protoplasts of study development; Gene expression in protoplast; Miscellaneous; Novel techniques; Protoplast technology for plant breeding; Microbial protoplasts; Protoplast isolation and fusion techniques; Protoplast fusion and genetic analysis; Morphological studies.

THe current growing interest of molecular biologists in plant hormone research is a promisisng development. Many papers were presented during the 14th International Conference on Plant Growth Substances illustrating the impact of this new approach on our understanding of hormone-controlled processes. The specific character is the integrated study of plant growth regulation at all levels ranging from single molecules to the entire plant and its functioning in the environment.

Isolated protoplasts are a unique tool for genetic manipulation of plants. Since the discovery of a method for the enzymatic isolation of pro-· toplasts by Professor E. C. Cocking in 1960, tremendous progress has been made in this very fascinating area of research. I have witnessed the struggle in the 1960's and early 1970's, when obtaining a clean prepara tion of protoplasts was considered an achievement. I also shared the pioneering excitement and enthusiasm in this field during the 2nd Inter national Congress of Plant Tissue Culture held at Strasbourg in 1970, where Dr. I. Thkebe of Japan presented his work on the induction of division in tobacco protoplasts. This was followed by my participation in three international conferences devoted to plant protoplasts held in 1972 in Salamanca (Spain) and Versailles (France), and then in 1975 in Nottingham (England). The enthusiasm shown by plant scientists at these meetings was ample proof of the bright future of protoplast technology, and it became evident that protoplasts would playa major role in plant biotechnology, especially in genetic engineering. Since then we have never looked back, and now the methods for isolation, fusion, and culture, as well as regeneration of somatic hybrids, have become routine laboratory procedures for most plant species. Currently the focus is on cereal and tree protoplasts. In order to bring about any genetic manipulation through fusion, in corporation of DNA, and transformation, the regeneration of the entire plant through manipulation of protoplasts is a prerequisite.

Today it is generally accepted that one of the key areas of biotechnology for the next century will be in plant-based biotechnology. Biotechnology has created new opportunities for plant scientists, with important applications to agriculture and forestry. This reference text is divided into five sections for ease of presentation. The first section focuses on the structure, composition and functionality of plant cells and genes with particular emphasis on the cellular and molecular biology of plants and cultured cells. Section two is concerned with the direct exploitation of cell cultures for the production of useful substances. The third section deals with regeneration and propagation systems. The fourth section considers the increasingly central area of genetic manipulation of plant cell systems. The last section is on specific applications in plant biotechnology. This reference work is a survey of these various facets of plant biotechnology. The individual chapters and the follow-up literature cited allow an easy access to the various subject areas and will, hopefully, stimulate interest in these rapidly moving and exciting fields of research.

Research on the interaction between plants and microbes continues to attract increasing attention, both within the field as well as in the scientific community at large. Many of the major scientific journals have recently reviewed various aspects of the field. Several papers dealing with plant-microbe interactions have been featured on the covers of scientific publications in the past several months, and the lay press have recently presented feature articles of this field. An additional sign of the interest in this field is that the International Society of Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions has almost 500 members. This book is a collection of the papers that were given at the Sixth Inlernational Symposium on the Molecular Genetics of Plant-Microbe Interactions which was held in Seattle, Washington in July, 1992. Approximately 650 scientists attended and approximately 50 lectures covering the topics of Agrobacterium-plant interactions, Rhizobium-plant interactions, bacteria-plant interactions, fungal-plant interactions and new aspects of biotechnology were presented. In addition, many sessions were devoted to the plant response to the microbe. Over 400 posters were presented of which the authors of 20 were selected to give an oral presentation. These papers are included in this volume as well. The symposium also included speakers whose research interests are not directly related to plant-microbe interactions but who are at the cutting edge of research areas that impact on the theme of the symposium. These individuals kindly agreed to summarize their talks and their papers are also included.

The basic concept of this book is to examine the use of innovative methods augmenting traditional plant breeding towards the development of new crop varieties under different environmental conditions to achieve sustainable food production. This book consists of two volumes: Volume 1 subtitled Breeding, Biotechnology and Molecular Tools and Volume 2 subtitled Agronomic, Abiotic and Biotic Stress Traits. This is Volume 1 which consists of 21 chapters covering domestication and germplasm utilization, conventional breeding techniques and the role of biotechnology. In addition to various biotechnological applications in plant breeding, it includes functional genomics, mutations and methods of detection, and molecular markers. In vitro techniques and their applications in plant breeding are discussed with an emphasis on embryo rescue, somatic cell hybridization and somaclonal variation. Other chapters cover haploid breeding, transgenics, cryogenics and bioinformatics.