Trends in plant tissue culture and genetic improvement of gerbera

Gerbera, a popular commercial cut flower with vibrant and striking colours has gained immense popularity in the floriculture industry. They are widely cultivated in various regions, making them available throughout the year. As a better alternative to conventional propagation methods (via seeds and rhizomes), plant tissue culture serves as way to avail large-scale, uniform, disease-free plantlets for commercial cultivation as well as to develop novel genotypes. In addition, it ensures production of healthy plantlets throughout the year in limited space. Based on the plant tissue culture techniques, the polyploidization, mutagenesis and genetic transformation pave a path for creation of variation and eventually enhancing the ornamental traits to address the consumers’ preferences and also facilitates in developing stress tolerant lines thereby minimising the losses during cultivation maintaining the quality of the flowers. This comprehensive review article presents an overview of the recent advancements on genetic improvement of gerbera via various cutting-edge plant tissue culture-based tools and techniques that contribute in enhancing the quality and efficiency of gerbera cultivation, meeting the demands of the floriculture industry while addressing the challenges of changing environment and resource limitations.