Applications of Somatic Hybridization
- Novel hybrid plants can be produced in sexually incompatible species.
- Heterozygous lines may be developed within a single species which are usually propagated by means of vegetative methods.
- 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.
- Photosynthetic efficiency of plants can be enhanced through transplantation of foreign chloroplasts in plants having less efficient photosynthetic systems.
- Cytoplasmic male sterile lines can be developed through fusion of elite cultivar with the X-ray irradiated protoplasts of CMS (Cytoplasmic malei sterile) parent.
- 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.
- Protoplast fusion will help in the combination of Mitochondria and chloroplast to result in a unique nuclear cytoplasmic genetic combination.
- Somatic hybridization has helped to study the cytoplasmic genes and their functions. In fact the information is successfully used in plant breeding programmes.
- Somatic hybridization can be done in plants that are still in juvenile phase.
- Protoplast transformation (with traits like nitrogen fixation by incorporating exogenous DNA) followed by somatic hybridization will yield innovative plants.
