1. The Status Of Plant Tissue Culture In Ethiopia (Seminar II)

2. Seminar outline
Introduction
History of plant tissue culture
Techniques of plant tissue culture
Status of plant tissue culture in Ethiopia
5. Challenges and opportunities of tissue culture in Ethiopia
a. challenges
b. opportunities
6. Summary and Conclusion

3. Introduction
Plant tissue culture(PTC) is the in vitro culture of cells, tissues, organs or whole plant under aseptic nutritional and environmental condition to produce multiple copies of the plants.
These conditions include proper supply of nutrients, pH medium, adequate temperature and proper gaseous and liquid environment.

4. Contd… PTC is initiated from tiny pieces of the plant called explants.
The most popular source of explants to initiate tissue culture are shoot-tip and Meristem-tip culture.
Importance in the area of plant propagation, disease elimination, plant improvement and production of secondary metabolites in relatively short time period and space. (Hussein et’a, 2012)

5. History of plant tissue culture
In 1902, a German physiologist, Gottlieb Haberlandt - for the first time attempted to culture isolated single palisade cells.
He laid down the foundation for tissue culture technology.
Called the father of plant tissue culture.
Tissue culture technology have been developing specially after genetic engineering and molecular biology techniques were developed.

6. Techniques of plant tissue culture
The whole process can be summarized into the following stages as shown.
Stage 1: Preparation of donor plant- Explant
Stage 2: Initiation stage- Surface sterilization and transferring into nutrient medium.
Stage 3: Multiplication stage- repeated sub culturing to increase the number of propagules.
Stage 4: Rooting stage: induction of rooting and development of strong root growth.
Stage 5: Acclimatization Stage: the in vitro plants are weaned and hardened and transferred to an appropriate substrate (Sand, peat , compost) and gradually hardened in a green house.

7. Fig. 1 flow chart diagram of plant tissue culture

8. Status of tissue culture in Ethiopia
First applied at Addis Ababa in 1980’s.
Since then, the focus was on micropropagation of indigenous forest species notable of which included: Podocarpus sp., Cordiaafricana, and Hygenia abyssinica and Endod, Teff and Enset.
These tree species have a characteristics of either difficult to regenerate vegetatively or require long time.(Wachira et’al, 2013)

9. Contd…
A more comprehensive and concerted tissue culture research programme was rolled out by the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) in 2000.
Following remarkable progress made in tissue culture, regional agricultural research institutes, some higher learning institutions and private enterprises adopted and expanded tissue culture application in Ethiopia.

10. The plant being cultured
Table 1. Some of the agricultural research centers in Ethiopia and plants being cultured
No.
Research center
The plant being cultured 1
Holetta
Potato, Enset, Cassava, Sweet potato, grape, Geranium, Barley, Maize, Fava bean, Teff , Highland oil and wheat 2
Jimma
Coffee, Pineapple, Sweet potato, and spices (Cardamom, Vanilla and Ginger 3
Melkassa
Banana, Sugarcane, Sweet potato and Garlic 4
Debirezeit
Grapevine, Teff, Durum wheat, Chick pea, Lentil, Forage crops and Garlic 5
Bahirdar
Potato 6
Areka
Root and tuber crops eg. Enset 7
Mekele PTC lab.
Banana, Lily, Pineapples, Citrus, Vine grapes, Sugarcane, Eucalyptus tree

11. Challenges and Opportunities of Tissue Culture in Ethiopia
Inadequate funding by national Governments;
Lack of a reasonable number of well-trained and experienced tissue culture personnel;
Lack of appropriate tissue culture infrastructure
Power and water shortage;
Inadequate national and/or regional policy frameworks to support private sector involvement in tissue culture.

12. Contd…
The relatively high cost of tissue culture products compared to their conventional counterparts,
Limited public awareness about proven tissue culture products and technologies,
Weak collaborative linkages and/or partnership among the different stakeholders along the tissue culture development and delivery pipeline.

13. Opportunities …
The recognition of biotechnology and in particular, tissue culture by key institutions.
The will and interest of development partners to support tissue culture development and utilization in developing countries.
The existence of well-established and functional private and public tissue culture institutions- provides technical guidance.

14. Summary and Conclusion
Comprehensive information on the status of tissue culture application in the East and Central African (ECA) sub-region was gathered on existing tissue culture capacity in terms of human resource and physical infrastructure.
Based on the findings, specific conclusions and recommendations are proposed along the following areas.

15. Investment in laboratory Infrastructure and human resource should be adjusted:
facilities such as distillers, microscopes, autoclaves were either not available or not functioning; water and power supplies were unreliable. Internet connectivity was also limited.
2. Facilities for disease diagnostics, indexing and certification:
To check the efficiency of the culture whether it is free from pathogen.

16. Contd… 3. Inadequate information and public awareness:
-create public awareness and clear understanding of tissue culture .
4. Private sector involvement in tissue culture:
-private sector plays a significant role owing to Government support.
5. Affordability of tissue culture-derived plantlets:
-Access by farmers to tissue culture-derived plantlets is limited.

17. Contd… 7. Databases for information management:
6. Tissue culture protocol optimization and development:
-The availability of efficient protocols will not only help speed up the availability of tissue culture materials but also reduce the associated production costs.
7. Databases for information management:
- For storing, managing and retrieving database information is needed for decision making.

18. THANK YOU!!!