Plant Tissue Culture Engineering

It is my privilege to contribute the foreword for this unique volume entitled: “Plant Tissue Culture Engineering,” edited by S. Dutta Gupta and Y. Ibaraki. While there have been a number of volumes published regarding the basic methods and applications of plant tissue and cell culture technologies, and even considerable attention provided to bioreactor design, relatively little attention has been afforded to the engineering principles that have emerged as critical contributions to the commercial applications of plant biotechnologies. This volume, “Plant Tissue Culture Engineering,” signals a turning point: the recognition that this specialized field of plant science must be integrated with engineering principles in order to develop efficient, cost effective, and large scale applications of these technologies. I am most impressed with the organization of this volume, and the extensive list of chapters contributed by expert authors from around the world who are leading the emergence of this interdisciplinary enterprise. The editors are to be commended for their skilful crafting of this important volume. The first two parts provide the basic information that is relevant to the field as a whole, the following two parts elaborate on these principles, and the last part elaborates on specific technologies or applications.

Part 1: Machine Vision Evaluation of photosynthetic capacity in micropropagated plants by image analysis/Y. Ibaraki Monitoring gene expression in plant tissues/J.J. Finer, S.L. Beck, M.T. Buenrostro-Nava, Y. Chi, P.P. Ling Applications and potentials of artificial neural networks in plant tissue culture/V.S.S. Prasad, S. Dutta Gupta Evaluation of plant suspension cultures by texture analysis/Y. Ibaraki Part 2: Bioreactor Technology Bioengineering aspects of bioreactor application in plant propagation/S. Takayama, M. Akita Agitated, thin-films of liquid media for efficient micropropagation/ J. Adelberg Design, development and applications of mist bioreactors for micropropagation and hairy root culture/M.J. Towler, Y. Kim, B.E. Wyslouzil, M.J. Correll, P.J. Weathers Bioreactor engineering for recombinant protein production using plant cell suspension culture/W.W. Su Types and designs of bioreactors for hairy root culture/Y-E Choi, Y-S Kim, K-Y Paek Oxygen transport in plant tissue culture systems/W.R. Curtis, A.L. Tuerk Temporary immersion bioreactor/F. Afteen Design and use of the wave bioreactor for plant cell culture/R. Eibl, D. Eibl Part 3: Mechanized Micropropagation Integrating automation technologies with commercial micropropagation/C.J. Sluis Machine vision and robotics for the separation and regeneration of plant tissue cultures/P.H. Heinemann, P.N. Walker Part 4: Engineering Cultural Environment Closed systems for high quality transplants using minimum resources/T. Kozai Aeration in plant tissue culture/S.M.A. Zobayed Tissue culture gel firmness: measurement and effects on growth/S.I. Cameron Effects of dissolved oxygen concentration on somatic embryogenesis/K. Kurata, T. Shimazu A commercialized photoautotrophic micropropagation system/T. Kozai, Y. Xiao Intelligent inverse analysis for temperature distribution in a plant culture vessel/H. Murase, T. Okayama, Suroso Part 5: Physical Aspects of Plant Tissue Engineering Electrical control of plant morphogenesis/C.G. Carmen The uses of ultrasound in plant tissue culture/V. Gaba, K. Kathiravan, S. Amutha, S. Singer, X. Xiaodi, G. Ananthakrishnan Acoustic characteristics of plant leaves using ultrasonic transmission waves/M. Fukuhara, S. Dutta Gupta, L. Okushima Physical and engineering perspectives of in vitro plant cryopreservation/E.E. Benson, J. Johnston, J. Muthusamy, K. Harding