Question

Somaclones are obtained by
A. Tissue culture
B. Plant breeding
C. Irradiation
D. Genetic engineering

Answer 1

Hint: Somaclones are identical, i.e., there is no variation in plant species.
Tissue culture is the process of production of new plant species from a parent plant by micropropagation.

Complete Answer:
- The term Somaclones was coined by Larkin and Scowcroft in 1981. Somaclonal variation leads to the creation of additional genetic variability. It is useful in genetic engineering to produce genetically improved plants with desired traits.
- Tissue culture is the growth of tissues or cells taken from the parent plant in an artificial environment.
- Plant breeding is the generation of new traits of plants to create new genotypes and phenotypes for desired purposes.
- Irradiation is the process of differentiation and growth of plant cells in vitro condition to create new plant varieties.
- Genetic engineering is the process of producing new varieties of plant with the help of variation in genes.
- Somaclones means somatic clones, that means when we produce a new variety of plant by taking the somatic cell or tissue of a parent plant then we can say these plants are clones identical to each other. It is prepared by the method of micropropagation in which the hybrid plants are generated by the fusion of protoplast of two different plants. The process is called tissue culture.

Hence, the correct answer is (A) tissue culture.

Note: Somaclones, plant breeding, irradiation, genetic engineering are the advanced bio-techniques recently used.
In these techniques we can produce new plant species with genetic variations according to the desired purposes.