Review: role of carbon sources for in vitro plant growth and development

• Published in: Molecular biology reports Vol. 40; no. 4; pp. 2837 - 2849
• Main Authors: Yaseen, Mehwish, Ahmad, Touqeer, Sablok, Gaurav, Standardi, Alvaro, Hafiz, Ishfaq Ahmad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.04.2013; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal Anatomy; Animal Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Carbohydrates; Carbon; Carbon - chemistry; Carbon - metabolism; Culture Media; Histology; Indexing in process; Life Sciences; Morphology; Osmosis - physiology; Plant biology; Plant Development - physiology; Plant growth; Plant Roots - growth & development; Plant Roots - metabolism; Sucrose - metabolism; Sugar; Tissue Culture Techniques - methods; Carbohydrates; Germplasm conservation; Synthetic seeds; In vitro morphogenesis; Vitrification; Sugars
• ISSN: 0301-4851; 1573-4978
• DOI: 10.1007/s11033-012-2299-z

In vitro plant cells, tissues and organ cultures are not fully autotrophic establishing a need for carbohydrates in culture media to maintain the osmotic potential, as well as to serve as energy and carbon sources for developmental processes including shoot proliferation, root induction as well as emission, embryogenesis and organogenesis, which are highly energy demanding developmental processes in plant biology. A variety of carbon sources (both reducing and non-reducing) are used in culture media depending upon genotypes and specific stages of growth. However, sucrose is most widely used as a major transport-sugar in the phloem sap of many plants. In micropropagation systems, morphogenetic potential of plant tissues can greatly be manipulated by varying type and concentration of carbon sources. The present article reviews the past and current findings on carbon sources and their sustainable utilization for in vitro plant tissue culture to achieve better growth rate and development.