Cymbidium's ~ Feathered ..

[Cym Ladye]

Feathering will not duplicate in the merilcone process as most peloric mutations will. That is why they are hard to find and expensive as they can only be proliferated from a division or BB.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Cym Ladye

Feathering will not duplicate in the merilcone process as most peloric mutations will. That is why they are hard to find and expensive as they can only be proliferated from a division or BB.

That's a really interesting situation, because it was assumed that in general, the mericloning process is supposed to provide results that have exact DNA match. So this leads to some interesting questions about the mericloning process, or cloning process in general.

[Mr.Fakename]

Originally Posted by SouthPark

That's a really interesting situation, because it was assumed that in general, the mericloning process is supposed to provide results that have exact DNA match. So this leads to some interesting questions about the mericloning process, or cloning process in general.

In theory it's supposed to yes; but there are so many explants to choose from, techniques to use, culture media, conditions etc that not all clones are created equal.

Mutations will especially happen if the technique uses only a few cells to regenerate hundreds of plants.
Those mutations are called "somaclonal variations"!

I searched for techniques used for Cymbidiums in Micropropagation of Orchids, Third Edition (Tim Wing Yam, Joseph Arditti) and here are a few of them:

- Shoot meristems cloning
- Culture of floral organs in vitro
- Culture of shoot apices in vitro
- Culture of dormant buds taken from pseudobulbs
- Protoplast isolation from leaves
- Morphogenesis and clonal propagation through
aseptic cell cultures
- Shoot formation from rhizomes
- Plant production through callus culture


If i get my biology right, and if the wanted mutation is stable enough to be passed on from natural division to division, it means the plant has a periclinal mutation.

There is no doubt that this feathering - and all sought after mutations - can be propagated one way or another. It's been widely done in common garden and house plants.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Mr.Fakename

If i get my biology right, and if the wanted mutation is stable enough to be passed on from natural division to division, it means the plant has a periclinal mutation.

There is no doubt that this feathering - and all sought after mutations - can be propagated one way or another. It's been widely done in common garden and house plants.

Thanks for adding that excellent information MFN!

That certainly makes sense. I was thinking that if the trait stays in divisions, and if at least a significant portion of meristem propagated plants become clones (where clone is exact DNA match), then surely a significant portion of the results of the mericloning process would also have the 'feathering' trait.

Thanks for that post MFN!