2. Introduction.- 2.1. Outline.- 2.2. Abbreviations and glossary.

- 3. History.- 3.1. Introduction.- 3.2. Developments in the Netherlands and other countries.

- 4. Types of cultures.- 5. Laboratory equipment.- 5.1. Supplies.- 5.

2. The laminar air-flow cabinet.- 5.3. Sterilization of nutrient media.- 5.4. Preparation room.

- 5.5. Cleaning glassware.- 5.6. Robots in the plant tissue culture laboratory.- 6. Preparation and composition of nutrient media.

- 6.1. Introduction.- 6.2. Glassware and plastics.- 6.3.

Preparation.- 6.4. Composition.- 6.5. Commercially prepared media.- 6.

6. Storage of nutrient media.- 7. Closure of test tubes and flasks.- 8. Care of plant material.- 9. Sterilization of plant material.

- 9.1. Introduction.- 9.2. Chemical sterilization.- 9.3.

Apparently sterile cultures.- 9.4. Internal infections.- 9.5. Symbiotic cultures.- 10.

Isolation, inoculation and subculturing.- 10.1. Introduction.- 10.2. Isolation.- 10.

3. Inoculation.- 10.4. Subculturing.- 11. Mechanization.- 12.

The influence of plant material on growth and development.- 13. The influence of physical factors on growth and development.- 13.1. The culture room.- 13.2.

Discussion of special physical factors.- 14. The transfer from nutrient medium to soil.- 15. Aids to study.- 15.1. Literature study.

- 15.2. Societies and associations.- 15.3. Laboratory notebook, photographs and slides.- 16. Embryo culture.

- 16.1. Introduction.- 16.2. Techniques.- 16.3.

Factors affecting the success of embryo culture.- 16.4. Practical applications.- 17. Germination of orchid seeds.- 17.1.

Introduction.- 17.2. Factors affecting germination and growth.- 18. Vegetative propagation of orchids.- 18.1.

Introduction.- 18.2. Meristem culture.- 18.3. Other methods of propagation.- 18.

4. Variation arising during culture.- 18.5.Practical applications.- 19. Production of disease-free plants.- 19.

1. Introduction.- 19.2. Production of virus-free plants.- 19.3. Production of bacteria- and fungal-free plants by meristem culture.

- 20. Vegetative propagation.- 20.1. General introduction.- 20.2. Single-node culture.

- 20.3. The axillary bud method.- 20.4. Regeneration of explants.- 20.5.

Callus induction, callus culture and regeneration of organs and embryos.- 20.6. Regeneration of plants from single cells.- 20.7. Synthetic seeds.- 21.

Somaclonal variation.- 22. Test tube fertilization.- 23. Production of haploids.- 23.1. General introduction.

- 23.2. Obtaining haploids in vitro.- 23.3. Problems associated with haploid induction.- 24. Genetic manipulation.

- 24.1. General introduction.- 24.2. Description.- 24.3.

Prerequisites for the use of genetic manipulation.- 24.4. Somatic hybridization.- 24.5. The relevance of somatic hybridization.- 24.

6. Disadvantages and problems of somatic hybridization.- 24.7. Selection procedures after somatic hybridization.- 24.8. Selection of mutants.

- 24.9. Transformation by Agrobacterium tumefaciens.- 25. Miscellaneous applications.- 25.1. In phytopathology.

- 25.2. In plant breeding.- 25.3. The biosynthesis of substances in vitro.- 26. In vitro cloning of plants in the Netherlands.

- 27. Index.- 28. Literature cited.