Question

For the production of haploids, we culture
A) Shoot tip
B) Anther
C) Root tip
D) None of the above

Answer 1

Haploids are the plant cell with half the number of chromosomes (that means they have the number of the gametophytic chromosome).

Complete step by step answer: Anther is the part of stamen which contains pollen grain. Guha and Maheshwari in 1964 first reported the direct development of an embryo from microspores of Datura by the culture of its anther. Anther culture is the type of tissue culture technique in which anther is obtained from the unopened buds in the nutrient medium under aseptic condition. When the culture in the appropriate medium gives rise to an unorganized, growing, and dividing the mass of the cell, then it is called a callus. (Microspores in the cultured anther develop into callus or embryoids which give rise to haploid plants).
-A callus that gives rise to a haploid plantlet either through organogenesis or embryogenesis.
-Pollen /Microspore culture is an in-vitro technique by which pollen grain at the uni-nucleate stage is squeezed out aseptically from the intact anther and then culture on a nutrient medium. The microspore develops into a haploid embryo or callus tissue that gives rise to a haploid plantlet by embryogenesis or organogenesis.
-Principle of Anther and pollen culture:
The production of haploid plantlets is to exploit the totipotency of microspores. In this process, the normal development and function of pollen grain to become a male gamete is stopped and is diverted forcefully to a new metabolic pathway for vegetative cell division.
-Application of Anther culture:

1. Production of haploid plants.
2. With this method, we can produce a homozygous diploid plant from haploids. This is achieved by the application of colchicine to the haploid which leads to duplication of chromosomes.
   So the correct answer is option (B).

Note: With tissue culture technique we can obtain Virus-free plants. This is achieved by meristem culture. Suppose the whole plant gets infected with a virus, but the meristem due to its continuously dividing nature, remains virus free. And when we culture the tissue obtained from meristem in the nutrient medium then it will give rise to the virus-free plant. (As in tissue culture, offsprings are exact copies of its parent, called somaclone).