Abstract
The initial interest in the immobilization of cultured plant cells was stimulated by the potential advantages of immobilized systems over free cell systems for the production of metabolites (Brodelius et al. 1979). It has since been demonstrated that cell immobilization has certain additional advantageous physiological effects. However, despite the resultant increase in the use of immobilized systems for the study of a variety of phenomena, attention still remains centred upon their use for the production of phytochemicals, as reflected by the balance of the contents of this chapter. It is, perhaps, something of a paradox that the great interest expressed in this subject, as exemplified by the number of recent reviews, has not been accompanied by a parallel increase in the number of research papers. Nevertheless, we believe that plant cell immobilization will become one of the important techniques used by plant biotechnologists to achieve a range of economically viable, commercial processes using plant cell cultures. The ability to immobilize plant cells has been demonstrated for a large number of higher plant cells and protoplasts (Table 1) using a variety of polymeric matrices. In our searches of the literature we have found no reference to the failure to immobilize cultured cells of any species tested. In this chapter is presented a review of the rationale and techniques used for the immobilization of plant cells, emphasizing the advantages and limitations of the published methods and the extent of their application.
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Hall, R.D., Holden, M.A., Yeoman, M.M. (1988). Immobilization of Higher Plant Cells. In: Bajaj, Y.P.S. (eds) Medicinal and Aromatic Plants I. Biotechnology in Agriculture and Forestry, vol 4. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73026-9_6
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