Somaclonal Variation in Improvement of Agricultural Crops: Recent Progress

Abstract

Genetic variability induced by cell and tissue culture provides a new source of variation within a species that can be utilized for crop improvement. The selection of novel variants through in vitro induced somaclonal variation helps in the generation of new cultivars with many important agronomic traits, which may be exploited in agriculture for breeding purpose. Some desirable characteristics can also be achieved by in vitro selection pressure technique. During the last 3-4 decades, several useful somaclonal variants particularly linked to the agronomic and agriculturally useful traits like yield, nutrient quality, disease resistance, abiotic stress tolerance, etc. have been selected and few of them have been released as cultivars for commercial production. However, selection of somaclonal variants for crop improvement has some major limitations like selection of undesirable traits, genetic instability and loss of regeneration after selection. Therefore, many efforts are needed to achieve desired results. In this chapter, the source and genetic basis of somaclonal variation, its detection methods and advantages of somaclonal variation in agriculture with main emphasis on some useful somaclonal variants released as a cultivar are discussed.