Subject: Use of the term "clon" in horticulture
From: escapee
Date: 5/11/2004 7:26 AM Central Daylight Time
Message-id:

On Tue, 11 May 2004 06:12:47 -0400, Cheryl Isaak
opined:

On 5/10/04 9:03 PM, in article ,
"escapee" wrote:

On Mon, 10 May 2004 21:58:38 GMT, figaro opined:

The term is "clone" and basically just means taking a cutting to produce
a
clone of the original plant with the same genetics and attributes.

Not always and not usually. Clone of plant matter is generally done by
selective tissue culture. It's a bit different than taking a cutting.


Nope - scientifically, to clone is to reproduce the parent plant exactly.
Cuttings do just that, just as tissue culture does.
Cheryl

I said not always and not usually. I didn't say never.

Cuttings are ALWAYS genetically identical to the parent plant. The only way
they would be different is if sexual reproduction is involved. Cuttings are not
sexual reproduction.

When new sports were
found in our greenhouses, we'd do tissue culture clones to assure the
differentiation was still evident in the cloned plant. If cuttings were
taken
of said sport, there are significant chances the plant can revert in
characteristic.

Then it is controlled partially by either age of the plant, or conditions it is
in, not pure genetics.

When cloned by tissue culture you are assured to have the
sport
perform as the original sport on the plant you took the culture of.

No, with cuttings you are assured to have it perform the same as the plant it
came from. With tissue culture, you are assured to have it behave as a young
clone (not a mature clone) of the plant it was taken from.



So, both are correct, but in the industry when something is asexually cloned
it
generally means it was reproduced by tissue culture to insure the anomaly.


I don't know what you mean by anomaly, I assume you mean genetic conditions.

SOme conditions can't be preserved through tissue culture, because they are
caused by the conditions the plant is in. Any genetic conditions are preserved
through both cuttings and tissue culture of meristems.

-

theoneflasehaddock