Callus and Suspension Cultures

This chapter examines aspects of culture-induced variation and the utility of rice cultures in biochemical and physiological studies. It also examines the latest advances in rice in vitro cultures and compare in a critical fashion the utility of diverse explants in terms of incorporating such cultures in rice improvement programs, either involving conventional breeding or transgenic approaches. Due to the low efficiencies of callus induction and green plant regeneration from pollen and anthers, a number of investigators attempted to evaluate the genetic component of regenerability in rice anther culture. In this study, dehulled mature seeds were used to initiate embryogenic callus which was used for the establishment of suspension cultures. Boissot et al. were able to induce plant regeneration from immature leaf, seed-derived calli and suspension cultures of the African perennial wild rice, Oryza longistaminata . Histological analysis established that plant regeneration from both callus and suspension cultures proceeded through an organogenesis pathway.