Read the given passage and answer the following questions :

As traditional breeding techniques failed to keep pace with demand and to provide sufficiently fast and efficient systems for crop improvement, another technology called tissue culture got developed. What does tissue culture mean? It was learnt by scientists, during the 1950s, that whole plants could be regenerated from explants. You will learn how to accomplish this in higher classes. It is important to stress here that the nutrient medium must provide a carbon source such as sucrose and also inorganic salts, vitamins, amino acids and growth regulators like auxins, cytokinins etc. By application of these methods it is possible to achieve propagation. Each of these plants will be genetically identical to the original plant from which they were grown, i.e., they are somaclones. Many important food plants like tomato, banana, apple, etc., have been produced on commercial scale using this method. Try to visit a tissue culture laboratory with your teacher to better understand and appreciate the process. Another important application of the method is the recovery of healthy plants from diseased plants. Even if the plant is infected with a virus, the meristem (apical and axillary) is free of virus. Hence, one can remove the meristem and grow it in vitro to obtain virus-free plants. 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.

In Somatic Hybridisation the new plant is formed by fusion of which of the following?

Fusion of protoplasts.

The correct answer is Option (1) - Fusion of protoplasts.

Somatic hybridisation: 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. When a protoplast of tomato is fused with that of potato, and then they are grown – to form new hybrid plants combining tomato and potato characteristics – resulting in formation of pomato.