Mulberry (Morus spp.) is an economically important tree grown widely in China, India and several other countries in Asia. The major
economic product of mulberry is its leaf which is used for feeding the monophagous silkworm Bombyx moriL. Mulberry leaf is also used
as fodder for livestock. Mulberry fruit is good for human consumption. Although mulberry is amenable to both sexual and asexual
methods of reproduction, due to the high heterozygosity of the parental lines and long juvenile periods, propagation is mainly through
stem cuttings or bud grafting. However, success of propagation through stem cuttings is greatly dependent on the genotype, environment,
and age of the planting materials. Besides, most of the temperate species are hard to root from the stem cuttings. Micropropagation is seen
as a cost effective method for propagation of these species, though a number of factors affect the success. In this article, wesummarize
these factors along with the causes and remedies for them. Other applications of tissue culture such as germplasm conservation,screening
for stress tolerance, triploid developments, genetic transformation, and their impacts on the sericulture industry have also been detailed
and discussed.
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