Applications of Somatic Hybridization

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Applications of Somatic Hybridization

  1. Novel hybrid plants can be produced in sexually incompatible species. 
  2. Heterozygous lines may be developed within a single species which are usually propagated by means of vegetative methods.
  3. Disease resistance can be induced by incorporating selective genome from the disease resistant to susceptible crop plants.Many disease resistant gene e.g. TMV, Potato virus X, club rot disease.etc.
  4. Photosynthetic efficiency of plants can be enhanced through transplantation of foreign chloroplasts in plants having less efficient photosynthetic systems. 
  5. Cytoplasmic male sterile lines can be developed through fusion of elite cultivar with the X-ray irradiated protoplasts of CMS (Cytoplasmic malei sterile) parent.
  6. Limited parts of genome can be transferred from one species to another by the formation of heterokaryons in which unidirectional sorting of cytoplasmic elements takes place.
  1. Protoplast fusion will help in the combination of Mitochondria and chloroplast to result in a unique nuclear cytoplasmic genetic combination.
  2. Somatic hybridization has helped to study the cytoplasmic genes and their functions. In fact the information is successfully used in plant breeding programmes.
  3. Somatic hybridization can be done in plants that are still in juvenile phase.
  4. Protoplast transformation (with traits like nitrogen fixation by incorporating exogenous DNA) followed by somatic hybridization will yield innovative plants.
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