Question

How polyembryony can be commercially exploited?

Answer 1

Polyembryony:

1. Polyembryony is basically the presence of more than one embryo in the seed.
2. As a result, more than one embryo develops just from a single fertilized egg.
3. Also, the process of polyembryony can be exploited in several ways.
4. The process actually raises the survival chances of the plants.
5. Multiple seedlings are generally obtained when the polyembryonic seeds germinate.
6. It assists in plant breeding.
7. Disease-free plantlets are actually obtained from such embryos.
8. Also, the embryos can be isolated and then grown on the embryo culture just for the production of clones.
9. Basically, uniform plants are obtained as the nucellar embryos are genetically identical to their parent plants.
10. And so it is used in horticulture as a rootstock for grafting, hence used in the fruit breeding schemes.
11. Examples are mango and citrus fruit.