Somaclonal Variation

Image: plantcelltechnology.com

Somaclonal variation is plant genetic variation produced through tissue culture or cell culture which includes all genetic variations that occur in plants regenerated from cells that do not have protoplast, callus or tissue differentiation. This variation can originate from changes already present in the explants from which the culture was initiated or induced in vitro by the culture medium and the environment. Somaclonal variation is triggered by mutations due to cultural processes that induce the emergence of genetic diversity which is very important for the enrichment of the genetic pool or the development of a genetic base in breeding programs and plant conservation programs (Sato et al., 2011, Krishna et al., 2016).

Genetic changes in somaclonal variation are not caused by gene segregation or recombination, as usually occurs due to crossing processes, but due to genetic mutations in explants induced under in vitro conditions. Plants with somaclonal variations experience mutations or cytological aberrations resulting in diversity caused by changes in chromosome structure, chromosomal damage (such as deletions, duplications, inversions and translocations), changes in chromatin methylation and changes in chromosome number (Delgarado-Paredes et al., 2017).

Somaclonal diversity can be divided into two types, inherited diversity and non-heritable diversity. Variation that is genetically inherited can be controlled, but diversity that is not inherited only epigenetically can be controlled. The genetically controlled syclonal diversity has a more stable nature, while the epigenetically controlled diversity will disappear.

References

Delgarado-Paredes GE, Rojas-Idrogo C, Chaneme-Cespedes J, Floh EIS & Handro W. 2017. Development and Agronomic Evaluation of in Vitro Somaclonal Variation in Sweet Potato Regenerated Plants from Direct Organogenesis of Roots. Asian Journal of Plant Science and Research 7(1): 39-48.

Krishna H, Alizadeh M, Singh D, Singh U, Chauhan N, Eftekhari M & Sadh RK. 2016. Somaclonal Variations and Their Applications in Horticultural Crops Improvement. 3 Biotech. 6(1):54.

Sato M, Hosokawa M& Doi M. 2011. Somaclonal variation is induced de novo via the tissue culture process: a study quantifying mutated cells in Saintpaulia. PLoS ONE. 6:e23541.