Isolation, culture, and uses of plant protoplasts

Techniques are now available for isolating plant protoplasts in any quantity from leaves or from cultured cells by enzymatic removal of the cell walls. The culture conditions for regenerating dividing cells and complete plants has been established for a few species. Intact viruses enter plant protoplasts and multiply. Spontaneous fusion occurs in protoplasts of the same species. Mitosis frequently takes place synchronously in the nuclei of the multinucleated protoplasts. Induced fusion of widely different species such as wheat and soybean has been demonstrated. Hybrid plants of two tobacco species have been produced by cell fusion. Transformation has been achieved by feeding isolated DNA to plants. Isolated DNA supplied to protoplasts is absorbed. The progress in plant cell and protoplast research demonstrates the feasibility of transferring genetic information and makes hybrid plant production by somatic cell hybridization a realistic objective.