Plant tissue culture: A history

Abstract

The author has lived in the plant tissue culture history since its beginning and had the opportunity to discuss with all the pioneers. Then in the present contribution he expresses personal memories, some of them being almost unknown. The tissue culture problem was suggested as soon as 1838 by Schleiden and Schwann's cell theory. The first experimental approach was vainly tried by Haberlandt in 1902. Following Carrel's success with animal cells, encouraging results were obtained on plants tissues by Gautheret in 1934 and the problem was definitely solved in 1939, independently by Gautheret, Nobécourt and White. The progress was slow because this new field interested only a few people. However in 1954 the principal chapters of this subject were already opened: Tissue culture, cell culture, improving of nutrients, especially of growth substances, expertness of organ formation and vegetative propagation, attempts to obtain secondary products and application to pathological problems. Later, in 1966 the androgenesis was initiated by Guha and Maheshwari, while Küster's pioneer work on protoplast fusion was exhumed and brought about innumerable investigations. Finally, for the past ten years plant tissue culture has truly exploded and now more than ten thousand people are engaged in this field: International Congress held in July 1982 at Lake Yamanaka, Japan is evidence for this effusive development. © 1983 The Botanical Society of Japan.