Tissue Culture Applications To Improve Crops of Strawberries, Raspberries, and Blackberries
Agricultural crops experience some form of decline after several generations, as evidenced by what is called a “run out”, described as the decrease of crop quality when it comes to disease resistance, quantity of harvest and even the size and shape of the fruit. This article talks about how the applications in tissue culture and the use of the tissue culture microscope can be helpful in the development of better strawberries, blackberries and raspberries.
It has is believed that this decline is caused by gene mutation generation after generation, altering the qualities of the fruit. The corrupting mutations have caused berries to appear misshapen, growth to become sluggish and the plants are more susceptible to pests and disease. Overall harvest these past years has also been poor.
The “rejuvenation” of fruits has resulted in exceptional harvest volumes and has re-established the reputation of crops in the past ten years. Agricultural growers have opted to purchase certified plants that have grown using the tissue culture method. This method works by using a tissue culture microscope, obtaining a cluster of cells from the tip of the growing plant, the apical meristem and cultured. These cells are allowed to grow in a sterile medium and develop roots and shoots. Without the threat of viruses or any other kind of diseases, this can grow rapidly and healthy. This new plant is then called a micro-plant, or often dubbed a nuclear stock mother plant because it is sent out to be planted and encouraged to multiply in fields and nurseries. The difference in these tissue-cultured plants can be seen in their vigor, disease-free state and qualities that are desirable.
Valuable crops like blackberries, raspberries and strawberries have undergone the tissue culture methods and thus ensuring their survival as well as retaining their sought-after qualities. The tissue culture microscope and sterile culture mediums have advanced in so many ways, even expanding to banana trees and not limiting the application to berries. In Israel, this method is being used applied to banana trees for its potential home in Central America. The marriage of agriculture and technology has proven to be quite harmonious, especially for commercial growers who can continue to enjoy the benefits of its amazing results. They are less worried about their crops “running out” due to disease or natural causes. Wholesale and retail customers are also pleased with the abundant supply of crops available. The application of tissue culture to other crops are being studied and evaluated for its potential yield. Farmers of sweet potatoes, berries and bananas have so far sworn to its advantages and applications.
This type of experimental study to help sustain crop species and propagation of new ones cannot be done without the technology we have today. Science and technology should be used for these types of purposes and not for the purpose of destruction or harm. With the progression of this study and continued improvement of others, crop farmers can be assured that the quality and harvest of their products will be less affected.
ORIGINAL TEXT:
When agricultural crops are reproduced by division after several generations, often a decline occurs in qualities such as vigor, yield, disease resistance, plant and fruit appearance and uniformity of size or shape. This condition of decline is commonly called, “run out.”
Strawberry plants have demonstrated this clonal decline (running out) for many years. After growing strawberry plants for five or more years, gardeners became accustomed to dividing a clump of plants that contained the mother plant (oldest plant) in the center and replanting the smaller daughter plants to be used as seed plants the following season. Certain genetic, undesirable changes (mutations) were brought to the surface, as seen in daughter plants; as more and more plants were continuously grown, generation after generation. Some of these corrupting mutations may be visually observed as the plant vigor decelerates (declines); the yield of strawberries is less, and sometimes the berries are misshapen; and finally, the plants become extremely susceptible to diseases caused by virus, bacteria, fungi, insect susceptibility, and nematode victimization. Agricultural researchers advised strawberry growers to discontinue old variety lines and clones and were told to buy new, certified plants that restore the vigor needed to increase yields of future strawberry gardens.
This phenomenon of strawberry decline has been experienced with other agricultural crops such as sweet potato vines, raspberry bushes, blackberry bushes or vines, and banana trees. The problem with banana trees has emerged as the greatest possible catastrophe facing modern agriculture today, since bananas, produced only by plant division and not seed, are the most popular fruit in the world and may face extremely serious setbacks, unless the efforts of scientists from Israel to “clean up” the evolved, accumulated defects by using tissue culture that could cause the commercial banana production to rebound.
Old “run out” clones of agricultural crops have in the last decade been rejuvenated to produce unprecedented yields and to restore confidence in a high quality product. Growers of agricultural, commercial, crop plants can avoid clone decline, “run out,” by buying certified plants that have been grown under strict governmental watchdog supervision, under a technique called, “tissue culture.” To “clean up” problems in weakened, flawed clones of raspberry plants, a clump of cells is taken from the growing tip of the plant called the apical meristem. These cells grow rapidly and rarely contain virus or other harmful defects and are placed within a sterile growing medium, where they grow into a clump that develops roots and a growing shoot. This micro-plant is grown into many other mother plants called “nuclear stock mother plants.” These mother plants are sent out to be multiplied over and over into certified plants by nursery propagators with a regained vigor, disease-free status and desirable qualities that were once present in the original profitable varieties.
One eclectic segment of agriculture that has been negatively impacted by clonal decline, “run out,” is the pick-your-own operation, where berry plants are not replaced often by operators with certified plants. Diseases and pests appear as a greater threat every year. This same phenomenon of disease and pest buildup is well known in home gardens where tomatoes, pepper plants, and many other vegetable plants are abandoned after a few years in favor of new soil locations. The decline of strawberry plants, raspberry plants, and blackberry plants in pick-your-own operations can not always be reversed by simply replanting the site with certified plants, unless the soil is first fumigated and sterilized. Very little attention has been paid to certify muscadine and scuppernong grape vines to be free of virus, bacteria and fungal infestations in pick-your-own operations. Those grapevines are normally multiplied by various methods other than seed planting.
Recent improvements in offering agricultural plants for certification will ultimately insure the survival of valuable berry crops like blackberry plants, raspberry plants, and strawberry plants. Crops such as banana trees that are grown in tissue culture in Israel for planting in Central America can offer hope that commercial interruption of banana fruit will be avoided. Recent tissue culture advancements have given commercial growers the security of continued profits and quality, sweet potato products to enjoy by growers and consumers.
The application of tissue culture propagation to the future of canna bulb, (rhizome), and commercial production could save growers who are floundering in complaints and indecision to restore a once important agricultural crop with a promise of future profits and a satisfied wholesale and retail customer. This application of tissue culture to future crops of every type that are grown by plant division will determine whether or not those crops will survive and not “run out.”
