Gene Transfer by Individual Manipulation of Plant Cells

The use of an improved microculture system originally developed for protoplasts of Nicotiana tabacum and Datura innoxia cells (Koop et al.1983a, Koop and Schweiger, 1985a) allows the individual selection of single plant cells and their transfer into microdroplets of unconditioned culture medium by using a fully automatized setup (Spangenberg 1986, Schweiger et al. 1987). This microculture system has been successfully applied for the individual culture of protoplasts of Brassica napus (Spangenberg et al. 1986a) and of the moss Funaria hygrometrica (Mejia et al. in press), allowing the establishment of defined cell clones with morphogenetic potential and the regeneration of whole plants.