Question

Answer the following question.
Explain the relevance of "Totipotency" and "Somaclones" in raising healthy banana plants from virus-infected banana plants.

Answer 1

Totipotency can be defined as the ability of a cell/explant to give rise to the whole new plant. This property allows the meristem tissue of a Banana plant to be grown in a culture medium.  As the meristematic cells are not infected (virus-free) and being totipotent, they can form the callus. Some clones are produced via tissue culture and are called so because of their genetic and morphological similarity to the parent plant. These some clones then give rise to the new plantlets that are infection-free.