Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2000 04:18:53 -0700 (PDT) From: bruce dudley <bddudley@yahoo.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg1692$foo@default> Subject: tc seeds vs tc tissues
Hi Miguel
The confusion here is the difference between sowing
seeds onto the tc medium and sprouting the seeds to
increase germination rates -- which tc does great.
You'll get a mature plant in 3-5 years; just more of
them with greater vigor! Tissue-culturing tissues
from a mature plant's rhizome or leaves or root will
produce mature plants sooner - just like taking a
cutting; you're just taking a smaller amount of tissue
from the plant and culturing it on the medium.
Strangely, in the last ten years (or so) people rarely
speak of tc in terms of genetically replicating a
plant from a small amount of parent-tissue so as to
get thousands of identical plants. The result has led
to the fuzzy connotation of "seed germination" as
being the only method of tc. Seeds are a 'tissue' of
the plant, but it all didn't start that way. In many
ways, though, I'm glad to see that we are not
producing the same genetically identical plant! Tissue
culturing seeds has produced a massive amount of
plants for people to share genetically different
plants round the world. I just think that it's funny
how the terms/concepts of tissue culture have changed
over the years.
Hope this helps.
Bruce
Miguel comments:
For those out there involved in TC:
Traditional seed raising of Sarracenias usually takes
5 years to produce flowering-size plants. Supposedly
TC shortcuts this process. What time period elapses
between sowing sterile Sarracenia seeds in vitro and
obtaining a flowering sized plant?
Miguel de Salas
School of Plant Science,
University of Tasmania,
PO Box 252-55, Sandy Bay, Hobart
Tasmania, Australia, 7001.
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