What is meant by germplasm collection? What are its benefits?
The collection of all the diverse alleles of all the genes of a crop plant is called germplasm collection. It is of great benefits in plant breeding programmes as it offers, to the breeders, the entire of genes and alleles and the characteristics which a plant expresses.
The breeder selects the most favourable characters of a particular gene, manipulates it and transfers to a desirable parent.
Name the improved characteristics of wheat that helped India to achieve green revolution.
Improved characteristics of wheat that helped India to achieve green revolution are
(i) Semi-dwarf nature
(ii) Quick yielding feature
(iii) High yielding feature
(iv) Disease resistance
Suggest some of the features of plants that will prevent insect and pest infestation.
Features of plants that will prevent insect and pest infestation are
(i) Increasing hair growth on aerial parts of plants.
(ii) Rendering the flowers nectarless.
(iii) Enabling plants to secrete insect killing chemicals (toxins).
It is easier to culture plant cells in vitro as compared to animal cells. Why?
It is easier to culture the plant cells in vitro as compared to animal cells because, the plant cells have the property to grow into a new plant. This property of plant cell is termed as totipotency. This ability is limited in animal cells.
The culture medium (nutrient medium) can be referred to as a 'highly enriched laboratory soil'. Justify the statement.
Culture medium is a highly enriched laboratory soil as it provides all the necessary requirements, e.g., carbon source such as sucrose and inorganic salts, vitamins, amino acids and growth regulators like auxins and cytokinins, etc., to the growing plant.