Protoplast fusion

Fused protoplast (left) with chloroplasts from a leaf cell and a colored vacuole from a flower cell.

As protoplast fusion, the fusion of two refers to cells whose cell walls previously enzymes were dissolved ( protoplasts ).

This in vitro fusion is induced by an electric current or by polyethylene glycol . After the cells have fused, known as cell fusion , the cell nuclei usually also fuse , known as karyogamy . So you can create hybrids (so-called somatic hybrids ) yourself from those starting lines that cannot be crossed with one another . Karyogamy leads to polyploidization in the hybrids that are created.

The best known example of such somatic hybrids is the " Tomoffel " created by Georg Melchers in 1978 , a somatic hybrid of tomatoes and potatoes .

The technique of protoplast fusion is also suitable for the genetic analysis of non- fertile developmental mutants , such as B. in the deciduous moss Physcomitrella patens . In breeding , protoplast fusion was used for. B. the potato more resistant to some viruses and fungi .

Individual evidence

↑ Solvey Rother, Birgit Hadeler, José M. Orsini, Wolfgang Abel, Reski (1994): Fate of a mutant macrochloroplast in somatic hybrids. Journal of Plant Physiology 143, pp. 72-77.