Zhuravlev Y.N., Babikova A.V., Gorpenchenko T.Y.
Plants as a subject of biotechnology
Year: 2007, Issue: LV, Pages: 184 - 211
Plants have determined well-being of people for a long time and have been used in different branches of production. As traditional agriculture can't satisfy the wants of the fast growing humanity any more the problem of increased production is being solved more actively by the methods of biotechnology. By now plant biotechnology has become an independent, fast developing branch of fundamental science and industry whose progress has made possible not only the improvement of already used agricultural plants but also the production of virusless planting material, preservation of rare and endangered species, the study of regulation and development processes in plants. Achievements of microbiology, biochemistry, molecular biology and molecular genetics used in biotechnology extend the means of traditional selection to create new plants with useful properties. This paper gives a review of traditional and new methods used in plant biotechnology. It also considers the technologies of using plants to create various producers of protein substances. Possible directions for in vitro development of plant cells and problems of creating and using transgenic plants are shown.