Q.Micropropagation involves

Micropropagation is the vegetative, in vitro multiplication of plants using small explants, producing large numbers of plantlets that are genetically identical to the parent plant. It is used at industrial scale to maintain high standards of genetic and physical uniformity in crops such as banana, pineapple, strawberry and potato, and its major advantage is that a single explant can be multiplied into several thousand plants within a short period of time and a comparatively small laboratory space. The banana protocol given as an example surface-sterilizes healthy suckers, isolates and cultures their apical meristems on MS basal medium supplemented with cytokinins (such as BAP and kinetin) for shoot induction and auxins (such as IAA and NAA) for subsequent root induction, then acclimatizes the resulting plantlets in a poly-house, tests them for genetic uniformity, and transfers them to the field. Because micropropagated plantlets are essentially clones of the source plant, micropropagation is one of the main routes by which elite or disease-free planting material is scaled up for commercial forestry and horticulture.