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Automated Micropropagation for en masse Production of Plants

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High-Tech and Micropropagation I

Part of the book series: Biotechnology in Agriculture and Forestry ((AGRICULTURE,volume 17))

Abstract

Micropropagation of plants is a multibillion dollar industry being practiced in hundreds of small and large nurseries and biotech labs throughout the world. Presently, it is the only component of plant biotechnology which has been commercially exploited on such a large scale. There are about 1000 plant species that can now be micropropagated (Murashige 1989). Micropropagation has been employed for about half a century, especially for ornamental plants (see Ammirato et al. 1989). Millions of plants are produced, sold locally, or exported to different countries (Chu and Kurtz 1989). Presently, interest has been extended to agricultural/plantation crops (e. g., potato, strawberry, oil palm, banana, etc.), medicinal and aromatic plants (Bajaj et al. 1988), and trees (see Bajaj 1986a, 1989a, 1991), (especially those which are difficult to propagate. Micropropagation of fruit and forest trees offers not only means for the mass multiplication of existing stocks of germplasm for biomass energy production, but also for the conservation of important, elite, and rare plants that are threatened with extinction.

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Bajaj, Y.P.S. (1991). Automated Micropropagation for en masse Production of Plants. In: Bajaj, Y.P.S. (eds) High-Tech and Micropropagation I. Biotechnology in Agriculture and Forestry, vol 17. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76415-8_1

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