Question

Name the technology that has helped scientists to propagate the desired crops on a large scale in a short duration. List the steps carried out to propagate the crops by said technique.
How are somatic hybrids obtained?

Answer 1

Hint: All living plant cells have the ability to regenerate plants when isolated and cultivated in a suitable environment" or "all living plants in the plant body have the potential to produce whole plants”. This property of cell is called totipotency; this property is used in a technique that has helped scientists to propagate the desired crops on a large scale in a short duration. Somatic hybrids are produced by a process that involves protoplast fusion.

Complete answer:
Let’s begin with first part of the question
1. Plant tissue culture is very important in plant biotechnology, especially in plant improvement programs. The term tissue culture can be defined as the process of in vitro culture of explants (differentiated living tissue pieces) in nutritional media under aseptic conditions. In general, however, tissue culture includes the term tissue culture as well as cell culture, organ culture and suspension culture.
Steps involved in tissue culture:
(A) Selection of explant and it’s Sterilisation: The explants are selected and then removed from the donor plant. The explants are then sterilised with a disinfectant.
(B) Preparation and sterilisation of culture media: Prepare suitable culture media, with special attention to the purpose of culture and the type of explants to be cultivated. The resulting culture media was transferred to a sterilized container and then sterilised in an autoclave.
(C) Inoculation of sterilised explant: The sterilised explants are inoculated onto the nutrient medium under aseptic conditions.
(D) Incubation of culture: Light, temperature and humidity ensure successful cultivation.
(E) Subculture: The cultured cells are transferred to fresh media which is rich in nutrients.
Now let’s come to second part of the question
2. Somatic hybrids are produced by the process of somatic hybridization.
 Somatic hybridization generally involves in vitro fusion of isolated protoplasts to form hybrid cells and subsequent development to form hybrid plants. In this way, protoplasts offer a new way to create cells with a new genetic constitution. Protoplast fusion is a great approach for overcoming sexual incompatibility between different plant species
Steps involved
Protoplast fusion Since isolated protoplasts lack a cell wall, in vitro fusion is relatively straightforward. There is no barrier to incompatibility (at the interspecific, intergeneric, or even inter-kingdom level) for protoplast fusion. Protoplast fusion, in which protoplasts from two different genomes mix together, can occur spontaneously, mechanically or inductively.
Only twenty to twenty five percent of protoplast actually involves fusion; it is therefore necessary to select the hybrid cells.
Next and last step is Identification of hybrid plants .

Note:
1902, the German botanist Haberland cultivated fully differentiated plant cells isolated from various plants. This is the first step in the beginning of plant cell and tissue culture. Another contribution was made by the cell doctrine, which recognized that cells can exhibit totipotency. The first plants from mature plant cells were regenerated by Brown in 1959.
Protoplast fusion is a great approach for overcoming sexual incompatibility between different plant species.
Protoplast fusion also helps in the fusion of cytoplasm and mitochondria to form a nuclear-cytoplasmic combination.