meristemming process...

[bunkie]

not sure this is the thread to place this under, but it does compute with 'production' that's in the title.

can anyone explain this process in simple terms, or rather, what it accomplishes? i've been reading about it here...

www.mericlonelabs.com/themeristemmingprocess

and googling a bit, but i can't get a grip on how it helps develop new plants. thanks!

[pugs]

Bunkie,

By developing new plants, what do you mean? If you mean using it to develop new varieties, that is one thing. If you mean, starting lots of plants, that is something else.

First, new varieties from meristemming, there is something called somacloning variation. Basically it means that small mutations occur in different cells. When growing a plant, these cells rarely have the chance to start a new branch, usually they are a single cell in a leaf, bark, petal, root, whatever. This cell never has the chance to grow in a way that someone would notice. When a plant is meristemmed, it means that plants are started from a growing tip, by growing in special mediums, basically a big ball of cells. The ball is cut up umpteen (100s, 1000s, 100000s, etc) times and each ball is grown again. This process increases the chance that the single mutated cell, grows into its own ball of cells, which may be divided up and grown into more balls of cells. Finally, these balls are put into a different growing medium which triggers them to start growing as a plant. As the plant grows, the different ones are evaluated to see if they show any traits which merit introducing as a new variety.

Now, if you mean just starting a lot of plants, the process above describes that, just ignore the fact that there may be new varieties cropping up in the process.

As to why it is done, well, that single growing point (a tip of a root, or a bud) is usually virus free, which is how virus free stock of potatoes, bulbs and such are grown. Also, for plants which grow slowly or for which the propagation by cuttings takes a long time, this is a way to get lots of plants started and cheaply if done where labor costs are low.

Most named varieties of geraniums are done this way now, which is also why there are so many new varieties showing up. Some types of orchids are done this way (the process doesn't work on some species of plants, last I heard).

Anyway, I hope this answers the question. I tried to explain it very simply and I left quite a bit out.

Pugs

[ceara]

Kind of sounds like what I know of as Micropropagation.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropropagation

[bunkie]

thanks for the explanation pugs. that helps alot. i waas maainly thinking of the process of just starting plants. i think i've got it now! ;D

and thanks for the link ceara. i'll take some time and read it.

i was concerned if there was a connection with meristemming to genetically modifying plants, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

[plantsnobin]

Bunkie, it is just a way of mass producing plants. Nothing really too freaky about it, just think of it as tiny little cuttings. They can get tons of plants from just a small piece of leaf tissue. Things do often mutate a bit during the process, but it is not a transgenic sort of thing. It was once thought of as the way of the future, because in theory you could create thousands of identical plants. But, it is turning out that many plants aren't stable when they are produced this way, so many commercial/specialist nurseries no longer want tissue cultured plants. Hosta virus X was transmitted throughout the whole industry by using a virused mother plant. With huge wholesale nurseries producing most of the plants sold throughout the whole country, it spread far and wide. Just another case of unintended consequences.

[ceara]

There are a lot of videos on You Tube. Do searches for micropropagation and tissue culture.

Mushroom growers use a lot of the same techniques, even at home using only pressure cookers and a still air box made from a plastic bin that has holes cut in one side. lol I even saw someone use a cardboard box as a still air box.

Usually plant material is grown in test tubes, whereas a lot of fungi is done in petri dishes. And the agar/growing medium is a bit different between fungi and plant purposes. Otherwise the techniques are pretty much the same.

[bunkie]

great info! thanks for all t he help. will google some more...