Mutation induction and tissue culture in improving fruits

This review describes in vitro mutation induction methods in fruits and the in vitro selection procedures available for early screening. Results obtai ned through in vitro mutation techniques, including somaclonal variation, a re reviewed and compared with the current achievements and future prospects of transgenic breeding. Plant improvement based on mutations, which change one or a few specific traits of a cultivar, can contribute to fruit improv ement without altering the requirements of fruit industry. Induced mutation s have well defined limitations in fruit breeding applications, but their p ossibilities may be expanded by the use of in vitro techniques. Tissue cult ure increases the efficiency of mutagenic treatments for variation inductio n, handling of large populations, use of ready selection methods, and rapid cloning of selected variants. Molecular techniques can provide a better un derstanding of the potential and limitations of mutation breeding e.g. mole cular marker-assisted selection, which can lead to the early identification of useful variants. The relatively high number of research reports compare d with the low number of cultivars released suggests that mutagenesis in co mbination with tissue culture is either ineffective or has yet to be exploi ted in fruits. Positive achievement recorded in other species seem to suppo rt the hypothesis that in vitro mutation induction has high potential also for fruit improvement. The possible contribution of a well-pondered and coo rdinated use of the numerous mutation induction, mutant selection, and fiel d validation procedures available to advances in fruit breeding is discusse d.