Q.What is Somatic Hybridization ?

Somatic hybridization fuses the protoplasts of two different plant species to create a hybrid plant that bypasses normal sexual incompatibility.

Many desirable crosses between plant species cannot be achieved by normal sexual reproduction because of pre- or post-fertilization incompatibility barriers. Somatic hybridization overcomes this by working at the level of the somatic (vegetative) cell rather than the gamete.

The process begins with isolating protoplasts -- plant cells whose walls have been removed by treatment with a mixture of cell-wall-digesting enzymes such as cellulase and pectinase -- from the leaf or other tissue of each parent species. Protoplasts from the two different species are then mixed together and induced to fuse using a fusogen, commonly polyethylene glycol (PEG), or by applying a brief electric pulse (electrofusion). Fusion causes the two protoplasts, along with their nuclei, to combine into a single hybrid cell containing genetic material from both parents.

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