Question

Somatic hybridisation is a technique of
A) Artificial Pollination
B) Natural Pollination
C) Making a hybrid between somatic and a gametic cell
D) Making a hybrid between two somatic cells

Answer 1

Hint: Somatic cells are the vegetative cells. Somatic hybridisation is a plant breeding technique. It is widely used for genome study and production of monoclonal antibodies.

Complete answer:
Somatic hybridisation is also known as protoplasm fusion. This technique was first developed by Carison. In this process, two species of plants are fused together to form a new species. The two plants can be of the same species or from different species. For example fusion between flowering and non-flowering potato plants or the hybrid between wheat and rye is called triticale.
Some characteristics of somatic hybridisation are
Only the genome of the parental plants can be combined which cannot reproduce sexually.
Protoplasts of sexually sterile plants will produce fertile species.
It overcomes sexual incompatibility barriers.
Thus option C is incorrect as it does not involve gametic cells.
Artificial Pollination- It is the process of transfer of pollen from one plant to another manually by humans.
Natural pollination- It is the process of transfer of pollen from one plant to another by natural agents like wind, birds etc.
So, the correct answer is (D). Somatic hybridisation is the hybridisation between somatic cells.

Note:Somatic hybridisation involves the cross between somatic cells other than sex cells. The hybrids obtained are more stable and disease resistant. For example somatic hybridisation is used in potato plants to make it more resistant to potato leaf roll disease.