Low Cost Tissue Culture Technologies in Vegetables: A Review

Abstract

The demand of vegetable crops is increasing day by day due to changes in consumption patterns, so the need of the hour is to develop technologies that enhance the vegetable production at a rapid rate. Plant Tissue culture is one such remarkable biotechnological tool that has its application in vegetable propagation and improvement, disease elimination, herbicide resistance, salinity tolerance, incorporation of high nutrient content, genetically improved plants and conservation of endangered plant species and in the near future usage of this technology is going to increase further manifold. It is used for production of disease free quality planting material and development of varieties through direct regeneration, anther/ovule culture, somatic embryogenesis etc. or for creation of new variation (organogenesis via callus formation, soma-clonal variation and in vitro mutagenesis). In spite of being a very important and viable non-conventional biotechnological tool, high cost of production of seedlings in vitro remains a major impediment in popularization of this technology. High cost of producing seedlings is due to availability of limited resources, high recurrent costs of consumables for media and lack of awareness, which limits its application only to a few institutions and rich farmers especially in developing countries. Therefore, in order to make this technology a successful and viable option for the farmers, future thrust must be on cost reduction of in vitro seedlings. The components of tissue culture technology such as culture media components, glassware, lighting and water for media preparation can be replaced with low cost alternatives to reduce the overall cost of tissue culture. The usage of alternatives for gelling agent’s like isabgol (potato, tomato, cassava, turmeric, ginger), sago (potato, tomato, turmeric, ginger) cassava starch (potato, cassava, sweet potato) barley starch, phytagel etc. and for carbon sources like table sugar (potato, turmeric, ginger), jaggery, sugarcane juice, cube sugar (bittergord), brown sugar etc have already been documented worldwide. The present paper reviews the work done by researchers around the globe in developing various low cost alternative technologies with focus on vegetable crops.

Plant tissue culture challenges in Ethiopia and alternative options for low-cost media

“…Therefore, this can be replaced by pressure cookers, which are cheap, efficient, can use any heat source, are easy to maintain, and are safe by attaching a wire mesh to their base (Ahloowalia & Prakash, 2004). Contamination is not detected when media and equipment have been sterilized using a pressure cooker (Naik et al, 2020).…”

“…The growth of plant organs, tissues, cells, or protoplasts in specially formulated nutritional media under sterile and wellcontrolled light, temperature, and humidity conditions is known as plant tissue culture (PTC) (George et al, 2008;Twaij et al, 2020). PTC is a remarkable biotechnological tool that has applications in vegetable propagation and improvement, disease elimination, herbicide resistance, salinity tolerance, incorporation of high nutrient content, genetically improved plants, and conservation of endangered plant species, and soon usage of this technology will increase further (Naik et al, 2020;Twaij et al, 2020).…”

“…Due to high manufacturing costs, even small and medium-sized laboratories with limited resources cannot take advantage of the potential benefits of PTC technology (Naik et al, 2020). The poorest countries, including Ethiopia, have missed these opportunities due to a lack of understanding, economic reputation, and legal constraints related to spending (Getnet et al, 2016;Abrar et al, 2019).…”

“…Alternative materials such as gelling agents (isabugol, sago, cassava starch, barley starch, and bulla) can be substituted for agar as a solidifying agent. In addition, carbon sources such as table sugar, potatoes, cane juice, sugar cubes, and brown sugar have already been documented worldwide (Naik et al, 2020). Other possibilities for lowering production cost includes liquid media, reusable glass beads and bioreactors, can be mentioned (Daud et al, 2011;Espinosa-Leal et al, 2018).…”

Xanthan gum and sodium hypochlorite in vitro rooting of Gerbera hybrida cv. Essandre

“…Agar is the most frequently gelling component used as it has characteristics that provide good support for explants, e.g., stability, high clarity, its non-toxic nature, and resistance to culture metabolites (Dhawale et al, 2021). When choosing low-cost agents to replace agar, the use of starch from cassava, barley, corn, potato, Research, Society and Development, v. 10, n. 4, e4811425143, 2022 (CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v10i4.25143 rice, and wheat or plant-based gums has shown to be effective in medium gelling, which is associated with good plant development (Espinosa-Leal et al, 2018;Naik et al, 2020).…”