Protoplast Fusion for Plant Improvement

Abstract

Most horticultural plant breeders probably are skeptical of the “potential for crop improvement by genetic manipulation through the use of protoplasts,” which has been professed optimistically in review papers and at genetic engineering conferences and meetings (45). This attitude may be warranted to some degree (43). Certainly, the ability to manipulate quantitatively inherited traits will be very difficult to achieve. Exogenous DNA may be introduced into protoplasts, but the subsequent integration, phenotypic expression, and sexual transmission of the new DNA are prerequisite to any possible exploitation by plant breeders. Significant advances have been and are being made presently, however, toward the realization of somatic cell genetic manipulations by the use of protoplasts. These efforts should increase genetic diversity of available germplasm and provide more efficient means for handling specific traits at various steps in plant breeding.