In the very fast developing scenario of biological science, the plant tissue culture has taken lead as the most
promising areas of application of biotechnological tools for today and tomorrow agriculture. The areas ranges from
micropropagation of horticultural crops, ornamental and forest trees etc., production of pharmaceutically important compounds,
and plant breeding for improved nutritional value of staple crop plants, including trees for cryopreservation of valuable germplasm.
The rapid production of high quality, disease free and uniform planting stock is only possible through micropropagation. Plant
production can be carried out throughout the year irrespective of season and weather. However micropropagation technology is
expensive as compared to conventional methods of propagation by means of seed, cuttings and grafting etc. Therefore, it is
essential to adopt measures to reduce cost of production. Low cost production of plants requires cost effective practices and
optimal use of equipment to reduce the unit cost of plant production. It can be achieved by improving the process efficiency and
better utilization of resources. Use of ‘Bioreactor’ in plant propagation can increase the speed of multiplication and growth of
cultures and reduce space, energy and labor requirements. The cost of production may also be reduced by selecting several
plants that provide the option for around the year production and allow cost flow and optimal use of equipment and resources.
Quality control is also very essential to assure high quality plant production and to obtain confidence of the consumers. The
selection of explant source, diseases free material, authenticity of variety and elimination of somaclonal variants are some of the
most critical parameters for ensuring the quality of the planting materials. The in vitro culture has a unique role in sustainable
and competitive agriculture, forestry and pharmaceutical industry and has been successfully applied in plant breeding for rapid
introduction of improved plants. Plant tissue culture has become an integral part of plant breeding. At present plant cell culture
has made great advances. Possibly the most significant role that plant cell culture has to play in the future will be in its
association with transgenic plants. The ability to accelerate the conventional multiplication rate can be of great benefit to many
crops/countries where a disease or some climatic disaster wipes out crops. The loss of genetic resources is a common story
when germplasm is held in field gene banks. In vitro storage using plant tissue culture tools and cryopreservation are being
proposed as solutions to the problems inherent in field gene banks. By these means the future generations will be able to have
access to genetic resources for simple conventional breeding programmes, or for the more complex genetic transformation
work. As such, plant tissue culture has a great role to play in agricultural development and productivity. In this review,
important steps of plant tissue culture, its critical precautionary points and commercial applications have been discussed.
As Banana is an important food crop and the second most important fruit crop after mango, a special account has been taken into
consideration to also put on record the steps involved in successful micropropagation of it. Despite the significant commercial
value of the banana crop, the main production constraint is the availability of reliable and safe planting material. The planting
materials obtained through conventional methods (suckers) do not meet the increasing demand for planting and they are of poor
quality. Tissue culture is the approach which can solve these problems. Micropropagation of the planting material is also facing
the different challenges which need to be addressed in order to improve its quality production. Some of the problems which
impair the success of the crop include oxidative browning of the wounded tissues and low number of shoots produce per explant.
This review includes the micropropagation studies of commercially important cultivars of banana in the country, highlights the
challenges encountered in its tissue culture and explores the possibilities of optimization of the in vitro propagation techniques
by using explants from shoot tip.
