Question

Variations appearing suddenly in cultures are

• A. Somatic variations
• B. Somaclonal variations
• C. Mutations
• D. Aberrations

Answer 1

Answer: (B)

Somaclonal variations

Somatic variations are the variations which occur in somatic cells.

Variations observed during tissue culture of some plants are known as somaclonal variations. Chromosomal rearrangements are an important source of this variation. The process like polyploidy, structural changes like deletion, duplication etc are the major cause of somaclonal variations. It helps in crop improvement, increased production of the secondary metabolite, increases high salt concentration. Mutation is a sudden heritable change in the gene pool.

Aberrations are the change in number or structure of chromosomes.

So, the correct answer is option B.