Iranian Researchers Design System for Production of Orchid Synthetic Seed

Synthetic seed technology is a potential tool to accelerate and facilitate the production of plant clones compared to seeds. Today, the method of encapsulating explants to produce synthetic seeds has become an important tool in plant propagation.

Mandana Mahfeli, a PhD student in biosystem mechanical engineering of Tarbiat Modarres University in Tehran, has succeeded in implementing the project in the form of her doctoral thesis.

“Synthetic seed technology is a method by which vegetative explants, somatic embryos, stem buds, protocorms or any other tissue capable of producing a complete plant can be encapsulated and stored,” she said.

Noting that the method was created as an alternative to conventional seeds and successfully developed in the field or greenhouse and mechanical planting at a commercial level, Mahfeli said,

“Orchid flowers are one of the largest and the most evolved groups of the flowering and angiosperm plants and enjoy great ornamental and medicinal importance,” she went on to say. 

Synthetic seed technology is a popular method in plant biotechnology and agricultural science because of its wide application in plant multiplication, short-term conservation, and germplasm exchange.

The orchid is a precious ornamental plant which is studied for encapsulation due to its medicinal and commercial value.

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