Forty Years from the Beginning of the Research in the Field of Plant Tissue and Cell Culture in Romania

Abstract

At the beginning of twenties century, based on the discoveries in cell biology in the previous decades, the German botanist Haberlandt (1902) has founded the concept of cell totipotentiality. The progress registered in biology between the two World Wars has led to the development of a new research field in plant physiology, based on nutrition, biochemistry and cytology that is the culture of plant tissue and cells in vitro. After the Second World War the practical applications of those new discoveries has allowed the development, after 1954, of a series of bio-industries at large scale, as clonal micropropagation of ornamentals and economically important crops, as well as the use of biomass in pharmaceutical industry as a source of secondary metabolites.