Recent Developments in the Regeneration of Agronomically Important Crops from Protoplasts

Of more than 350,000 species of plant known to science, only 100–200 are of major economic importance. The bulk of the world’s food comes from just 15 species (1), which are mainly cereals, legumes and root crops. Improvements of many of these species by the powerful tools of genetic manipulation presents difficulties, mainly because tissue culturists have yet to identify successful protocols for in vitro regeneration in such plants.