What is protoplast fusion?
                     WHAT IS 
PROTOPLAST 
FUSION?
INTRODUCTION
Protoplast fusion is a physical phenomenon. 
During fusion, two or more protoplasts come 
in contact and adhere with one another either 
spontaneously or in presence of fusion induc 
ing chemicals.
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SPONTANEOUS 
FUSION
Protoplasts, during isolation, often fuse spon 
taneously and this phenomenon is called 
spon taneous fusion. 
Simple physical contact is sufficient to bring 
about the spontaneous fusion among the 
similar parental protoplasts.
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ENZYME 
TREATMENT
During the enzyme treatment for the 
isolation of pro toplasts, it is found that 
protoplasts from ad joining cells fuse through 
their plasmodesmata to form a multinucleate 
protoplast.
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PLASMODESMATA 
CONNECTION
Electron microscopic studies have shown that 
as the cell walls are enzymatically degraded, 
the plasmodesmata connection between the 
adjacent cells enlarge due to removal of its 
constriction and the enlargement of pit fields.
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PROTOPLASTS
The protoplasts, once they are freely iso lated, 
do not fuse spontaneously with each other. 
An exception is the protoplast from 
microsporocytes of some plants of lily family 
where the freely isolated protoplasts fuse 
spon taneously.
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USECASES
This type of spontaneous fusion has been 
used to produce inter-generic fusion, e.g., the 
spontaneous fusion of microsporocyte 
protoplast of Lolium longiflorum and Trillium 
kamtschaticum.
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INDUCED FUSION
Fusion of freely isolated protoplasts from dif  
ferent sources with the help of fusion 
inducing chemical agents is known as 
induced fusion.
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ELECTRO FUSION
Electro fusion is a modern technique of pro 
toplast fusion which involves the use of mild 
electrical fields in protoplast suspension for 
inducing protoplast fusion. 
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MECHANICAL 
FUSION
In this process, the isolated protoplasts are 
brought into intimate physical contact me 
chanically under microscope using microma 
nipulator and perfusion micropipette. 
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CHEMO-FUSION
Spontaneous fusion of two or more adjoining 
Several chemicals have been used to induce 
somatic protoplasts is of no practical use, but 
protoplast fusion. 
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