1. Reproduction and propagation
Seeds – the conventional process
Vegetative propagation
Tissue culture

2. Scientific and Industrial Perspectives
Plant propagation
Scientific and Industrial Perspectives

3. Market Size (World Markets)
Seeds (hybrid and open pollination)- $ 37 B (10 top companies control 2/3 of the industry.
Vegetatively propagated plants - $ 12 B
Tissue culture propagules - $ 400 M
Transgenic seeds and plants $ 7 B

4. Industrial considerations
High quality of germplasm
True to type
Pathogen free
Uniformity
Good physiological condition
Data sheet certification
Seasonal production - storage
Shipping and receiving - packaging, soil substrates, routing,indexing
Intellectual property rights (IPR)

5. International trade in plant material
Phyto-sanitary certification
Import permit
Shipping and receiving
Standardization in quality control
International agreements on “Variety
Registration” breeders rights and IPR

6. Easy to handle and ship to end user Manageable post harvest quality
Sexual propagation
Genetic variation
Pathogen “free”
Inexpensive
Easy to handle and ship to end user
Manageable post harvest quality
Long shelf life
Possible to breed
Germination technology
Inbreeding
Juvenility

8. Vegetative propagation
Propagules carry clonal history
Germplasm improvement – Lack of variation
Phyto-sanitary problems
Genetic fidelity
High cost of production
Uniformity
Predetermined architecture
Hardening requirements
Handling difficulties
Cuttings
seeds

9. Industrial aspects genetic constitution vs. quality true to type
Disease and virus free
uniformity
pysiological state
certification (plant passport)
shelf life
timing
packing
intellectual property rights

10. International trade in propagation material
Health certification
Import/export documentation
Packaging/ packing
True to type
IP issues UPOV Convention DUS

11. Totipotency
“The ability of each cell in a multicellular organism to develop into a complete individual”
CELL THEORY [ Schleiden and Schwan, 1838]
“Among the plants, any cell can be separated from the plant and continue to grow. Thus, entire plants may consist of cells whose capacity for independent life can be clearly demonstrated…

12. Totipotency

13. Apical Meristems Shoot apical meristem –
The majority of plant mass originates from SAM.
All above ground portion.
Give Rise to lateral tissue stractures
Root meristem –
Majority of bellow ground tissue
No lateral structure (root cap only)

14. MERISTEMS IN PLANTS
Central Zone (CZ) – large cells, divide
Less frequent than surrounding cells.
Cells divide to replenish cells used to
form leaf primordia.
Peripheral Zone (PZ)- morphogenic zone
Rapid cell division, the major source
of meristem cells
Rib Zone (RZ) – formation of tissues
and the stem

16. APICAL MERISTEM

17. Cell division
Tunica (L1) - Cells divide in anticlinal plane (perpendicular
to the surface)
Carpus (L2) – Periclinal cell division, (sectorial chimeras)
Transition to primordium – periclinal division of the tunica
Represent transition to primordium
Founder cells – a predicted number of cells form leaves and
flower parts

18. Cell regulation in apical meristems
M. K. Barton, Twenty years on: The inner workings of the shoot apical meristem,
a developmental dynamo. Developmental Biology 341 (2010) 95–113

19. Axillary meristem formation
Plant form is regulated by the outgrowth of
axillary meristem
Axillary meristem occurs from the surface of leaf
Primordia (in maize AM are not associated with
the current leaf but with the margine of the
previous leaf

20. Apical meristem in Arabidopsis
מתוך
M. K. Barton, Twenty years on: The inner workings of the shoot apical meristem,
a developmental dynamo. Developmental Biology 341 (2010) 95–113

21. Adventitious root meristems
Adventitious M. are formed from cambial tissue
Most roots are formed from adventitious meristem .
From the pericycle cell layer
Adventitious buds form from displacement of
axillary shoots or from true adv. initials

22. ROOT MORPHOLOGY - INITIATION