Protoplast Culture, Somatic Hybridization and Somatic Cybridization - One of the most significant developments in the field of plant tissue culture, Witnessed during the last few decades, is the isolation, culture and fusion of protoplasts. A more recent achievement is the manipulation and regeneration of these cultured or fused protoplasts into whole plants.

Since in plant cells, the plasma membrane is bound by a rigid cellulose wall (unlike animal cells), it has been relatively difficult to handle plant cells. Only in 1960, it was demonstrated by E.C. Cocking at the University of, Nottingham (U.K.), that naked cells called protoplasts can be obtained through enzymatic degradation of cell walls.