Plant husbandry – Miscellaneous – Modified earth's surface – e.g. – sod – turf – reinforced
Patent
1992-03-20
1995-01-17
Britts, Ramon S.
Plant husbandry
Miscellaneous
Modified earth's surface, e.g., sod, turf, reinforced
A01G 900
Patent
active
053822684
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for use in micropropagation.
Micropropagation of plants uses the techniques of plant tissue culture and applies them to the propagation of plants. Micropropagation normally uses either shoots or shoot tips or other vegetable plant organs as starting points. At its simplest, micropropagation consists initially of excising small pieces of actively growing tissue. Then, under sterile conditions, the pieces of tissue are transferred to a nutrient medium which supports plant growth. The plant material will finally develop into entire plantlets. These plantlets must then be weaned from the axenic conditions in which they have existed within the laboratory into viable, rooted plants capable of survival in conventional horticultural or agricultural environments.
The growth of plants from tissue culture is a technique which can produce large numbers of genetically identical plants, perhaps possessing a desirable quality such as disease resistance, in a short time. The tasks of dissecting and transplanting such plants are labour-intensive and repetitive, and the gains in speed, sterility and labour costs which could be achieved by the use of robots make automation an attractive prospect for the fast-expanding micropropagation industry.
The present technique is labour-intensive, and two of the particularly important operations which are repeated frequently are removing a plant from a container, and cutting a required portion of plant tissue from the donor plant. As performed at present, commercially, the cutting operation normally consists of an operator removing plantlets from a plastics container, and cutting the plant material by a scalpel while holding the plant material with forceps. The standard container for plantlets is usually similar to a margarine tub, and, before the cutting operation can take place, the lid of the container is removed manually.
Two particular problems arise in the automation of micropropagation techniques. Firstly, there is the problem, in common with manual operation, of contamination of the plant material. This can arise either from contamination of the initial batch of multiplying cultures or by contamination during multiplication. In present commercial practice rule of thumb is that tools which contact plant material in one growing box are sterilized before use with the next box of plants. In the commonly used 80 mm diameter margarine tub there may be as few as four cultures yielding a total of twelve sub-cultures for transfer to fresh media. This example would be extreme, but serves to illustrate the importance of securing sterilization routines which can be effected with minimum interruption to output.
One particular source of contamination, is the process of removing the lids of the container. Another source is contact by the plants with the outer sides of the containers.
Another problem is that in robotic work on micropropation, there is often an awkward movement resulted by end effectors, e.g. anthropomorphic gripping devices, in entering into an open container, and manoeuvring inside the container whilst avoiding contact with side walls.
It is one object of the present invention to allow automatic or semi-automatic robotic manipulation of plant material during micropropagation whilst overcoming or reducing problems concerned with sterilization and manoeuvrability within plant containers.
According to the present invention in one aspect there is provided a method of operating on plantlets during micropropagation including the steps of presenting at a work station a container containing plantlets growing in a nutrient medium, and cutting the container by a laser to provide access to the plantlets.
Preferably the method includes using the laser to cut a normally upper portion of the container free from a normally lower portion which contains the nutrient medium supporting the plantlets, and removing the said upper portion of the container to provide access to the plantlets. Conveniently the step of removing the upper portion
REFERENCES:
patent: 3514900 (1970-06-01), McDade
patent: 4469931 (1984-09-01), Macken
patent: 4569914 (1986-02-01), Molnar et al.
patent: 4748980 (1988-06-01), Cremer et al.
patent: 4782728 (1988-11-01), Thatcher
A. F. Balabak et al., Sep. 1988, "The Effect of .gamma. and Laser Radiation on the Rate of Rooting of Stem Cuttings of Coniferous and Evergreen Deciduous Plants".
J. M. Bonga and D. J. Durzan, May 1985, "Tissue Culture in Forestry".
Billington William P.
Brown Frank R.
British Technology Group Ltd.
Britts Ramon S.
Downs Joanne C.
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