Isolated protoplast from two different varieties of plant having desirable character can be fused to get hybrid protoplast. These hybrids are called:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Somatic hybrids
A protoplast is a plant cell with its cell wall removed. Protoplasts of two varieties, each with a desirable character, can be fused to form a hybrid protoplast. It can be grown into a new plant. The fusion is of body (somatic) cells, so the hybrids are called somatic hybrids and the process is somatic hybridisation. The tomato and potato fusion is one example.
(1) Self-pollinated hybrids — Incorrect. Pollination is not involved here. Cells are fused in a laboratory.
(2) Parthenogenetic hybrids — Incorrect. Parthenogenesis is the development of an egg without fertilisation. No fusion happens.
(3) Somatic hybrids — Correct. This is the name for plants formed from fused protoplasts.
(4) Somaclonal hybrids — Incorrect. NCERT uses the word somaclones for plants grown from one parent by tissue culture. They are identical to that parent, and no two varieties are fused.
NCERT Extract:
Biotechnological Applications in Agriculture – “… Scientists have succeeded in culturing meristems of banana, sugarcane, potato, etc. Scientists have even isolated single cells from plants and after digesting their cell walls have been able to isolate naked protoplasts (surrounded by plasma membranes). Isolated protoplasts from two different varieties of plants – each having a desirable character – can be fused to get hybrid protoplasts, which can be further grown to form a new plant. These hybrids are called somatic hybrids while the process is called somatic hybridisation.”