Application of biotechnology

Biotechnology has wide applications. Here its applications in the field of agriculture and medicine have been discussed.
In the field of agriculture – biotechnology has been applied for the improvement of agricultural, horticultural and forestry crops. Following are the application of biotechnology in the are of agriculture:
1. Micropropagation – using plant tissue culture, rapid vegetative multiplication of the plant material for agriculture, horticulture and forestry is possible. Micropropagation is beneficial because by this technique, large number of off springs or plantlets can be obtained in short period of time.
2. Production of disease – free plants – meristem tip culture is a technique of plant tissue culture in which meristem is used as explant. Using this method, virus free plants may be obtained.
3. Androgenic haploids – by anther culture androgenic haploid embryos or plantlets are obtained from the microspores or pollens. Haploid plants are significant because mutation ( spontaneous or induced ) can express themselves and can be easily detected. It is very important for research point of view.
4. Development of resistant plants – plant tissue culture can also be useful for creating varieties tolerence to pests, diseases or stresses.
5. Protoplast culture and fusion – protoplast can be used for genetic manupultion and somatic cells fusion in plant cells. This provides a chance to get a hybrid variety between non-related species.