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Somatic Hybridization of Plants and its Use in Agriculture

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Plant Cell Biotechnology

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASIH,volume 18))

Abstract

Since Carlson et al. (1972) first reported the successful recovery of somatic hybrid plants, very many protoplast fusion experiments have been done. These have ranged from experiments aimed at answering fundamental questions on the interaction of different plant genomes following fusion to practical questions regarding the improvement of crop species by fusion with wild species possessing desirable agronomic traits. The agricultural applications of protoplast fusion are now beginning to be realised and although the recent successes in plant transformation offer many new opportunities in plant genetic engineering for crop improvement, it is clear that protoplast fusion does have an important role to play in practical plant biotechnology.

In this article we discuss the methodologies needed to recover somatic hybrids, their key features and some examples of somatic hybrids which are proving useful in agriculture. It should be noted that there exists a huge literature on protoplast fusion and only a limited number of examples are quoted in each section.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Biotechnology Group, (Norwich Laboratory), Institute of Food Research, Norwich, NR4 7UA, UK

    John D. Hamill

  2. Dept. of Botany, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

    Edward C. Cocking

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  1. John D. Hamill
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  2. Edward C. Cocking
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Faculdade de Ciências de Lisboa, R. Escola Politecnica 58, 1294, Lisboa Codex, Portugal

    M. Salomé S. Pais

  2. Chemical Engineering Department, UMIST, P.O. Box 88, Manchester, M60 1QD, UK

    F. Mavituna

  3. Laboratorio de Engenharia Bioquimica, Instituto Superior Tecnico Av. Rovisco Pais, 1000, Lisboa, Portugal

    J. M. Novais

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© 1988 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Hamill, J.D., Cocking, E.C. (1988). Somatic Hybridization of Plants and its Use in Agriculture. In: Pais, M.S.S., Mavituna, F., Novais, J.M. (eds) Plant Cell Biotechnology. NATO ASI Series, vol 18. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73157-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73157-0_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-73159-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-73157-0

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