Case Study/Passage Based Questions:
Question 1:
Given below is a flowchart for the formation of somatic hybrid, Pomato.
(i) A certain tissue, of a plant, infected with TMV was used to obtain a new plant using tissue
culture technique. Identify the technique used and reason out the possibility of obtaining
a new healthy plant.
(ii) How can pollen grains of wheat and rice which tend to lose viability within 30 minutes of
their release be made available months later for breeding programmes?
(iii) What is protoplast fusion?
Answer
Ans.(i) The technique used is tissue culture using meristematic tissue as this method produces virus free plants.
(ii) The pollen grains can be stored in liquid nitrogen (−196°C). Such stored pollen grains do not lose their viability for years and can be used in breeding programmes.
(iii) The merging of protoplasts obtained from two different cells to form a hybrid protoplast is called protoplast fusion.