Historical Sketch

Abstract

In 1902, Gottlieb Haberlandt, regarded as the Father of Plant Tissue Culture, presented the negative results of his attempts to regenerate whole plants from isolated plant cells cultured in nutrient medium and postulated that it should be possible to induce isolated plant cells to divide and form embryos. Indeed in 1958, when proper and adequate tissue culture facilities, knowledge about growth regulators and suitable plant tissue culture media formulations had become available, Steward (USA) and Reinert (Germany) achieved somatic embryogenesis in root tissue cultures of carrot. With further refinement of the techniques and instrumentation it has become possible to establish tissue cultures from a wide variety of tissues and plants and to regenerate full plants from them via organogenesis and/or embryogenesis. Since 1925, when Laibach demonstrated the development of interspecific hybrids of sexually incompatible parent by hybrid embryo culture, this aseptic laboratory, this aseptic technique has found many practical applications in plant improvement, propagation, and preservation, which are described in the following chapters. This chapter is concluded with milestones in the history of plant tissue culture.