Environmental control for the large-scale production of plants through in vitro techniques

Leafy or chlorophyllous explants of a number of plant species currently micropropagated have been found to have high photosynthetic ability. Their growth and development have been promoted on sugar-free medium rather than on sugar-containing medium, provided that the environmental factors, such as CO₂ concentration, light intensity and relative humidity, are controlled for promoting photosynthesis and transpiration of explant/shoots/plantlets in vitro. Thus, environmental control is essential for promoting photosynthetic growth and development of in vitro plantlets. Several types of sugar-free (photoautotrophic) culture systems for large-scale micropropagation of plants have been developed. Advantages of sugar-free over conventional (heterotrophic or photomixotrophic) micropropagation systems are as follows: growth and development of plantlets in vitro are faster and more uniform, plantlets in vitro have less physiological and morphological disorders, biological contamination in vitro is less, plantlets have a higher percentage of survival during acclimatization ex vitro, and larger culture vessels could be used because of less biological contamination. Hence, production costs could be reduced and plant quality could be improved significantly with photoautotrophic micropropagation. Methods for the measurement and control of in vitro environments and the beneficial effects of environmental control on photosynthetic growth, development, and morphogenesis in large-scale production of micropropagated plantlets are presented.