NEET UG - Plant breeding and tissue culture - methods and applications in crop improvement Question Bank with Options

1. Plant breeding and tissue culture methods have significantly contributed to the development of crops that are more resistant to:

A) Extreme temperatures

B) Salinity

C) Drought

D) All of the above

2. Which of the following is an example of a crop improved for insect resistance through genetic engineering, often facilitated by tissue culture techniques for transformation?

A) Golden Rice

B) Bt Cotton

C) Drought-tolerant maize

D) Virus-resistant potato

3. The ability to produce identical copies of a plant with desirable traits is a key feature of:

A) Hybridization

B) Mutation breeding

C) Micropropagation

D) Polyploid breeding

4. Which type of tissue culture is used to produce haploid plants from pollen grains?

A) Callus culture

B) Meristem culture

C) Anther or microspore culture

D) Somatic embryogenesis

5. What is the primary role of plant breeding in food security?

A) To reduce the diversity of crops

B) To increase crop production and resilience

C) To make crops more expensive

D) To encourage monoculture practices

6. Somaclonal variation can be a source of:

A) Undesirable traits only

B) Useful genetic variations for crop improvement

C) Reduced plant vigor

D) Increased susceptibility to diseases

7. Somaclonal variation refers to:

A) Genetic variation observed in sexually reproduced offspring

B) Genetic variation arising from tissue culture

C) Variation induced by mutagens

D) Variation due to environmental factors

8. Which technique allows for the transfer of genes between unrelated species, bypassing sexual reproduction barriers?

A) Hybridization

B) Mutation breeding

C) Genetic engineering

D) Polyploid breeding

9. What is the main challenge in conventional plant breeding?

A) Lack of genetic variation

B) Time-consuming nature of the process

C) Inability to introduce new traits

D) High cost of seeds

10. The process of selecting and crossing plants with desired traits over multiple generations is known as:

A) Mass selection

B) Pure-line selection

C) Pedigree selection

D) Backcrossing

11. Which of the following is NOT a direct application of plant breeding and tissue culture?

A) Increasing crop yield

B) Improving nutritional content

C) Developing plants for ornamental purposes

D) Studying plant evolutionary history

12. What is the primary advantage of using tissue culture for disease-free plant propagation?

A) It is cost-effective for large-scale field planting

B) It ensures that the propagated plants are genetically identical and free from pathogens

C) It allows for rapid adaptation to new environments

D) It increases the genetic diversity of the population

13. The term 'explants' in plant tissue culture refers to:

A) The nutrient medium

B) Small pieces of plant tissue used for culture

C) Plant hormones

D) Regenerated plantlets

14. Which of the following plant breeding methods is most effective for creating new genetic combinations that do not exist in nature?

A) Mutation breeding

B) Hybridization

C) Polyploid breeding

D) Tissue culture

15. What is the purpose of 'embryo rescue' in interspecific or intergeneric crosses?

A) To select for desirable traits

B) To obtain viable offspring when the hybrid embryo aborts

C) To induce polyploidy

D) To eliminate viruses

16. The development of semi-dwarf varieties of wheat and rice was crucial for:

A) Increasing lodging

B) Allowing higher fertilizer application and increasing yield

C) Reducing photosynthesis

D) Making plants more susceptible to drought

17. Which cereal crop has seen significant improvement through hybridization and breeding programs?

A) Lentil

B) Chickpea

C) Maize

D) Soybean

18. What role does tissue culture play in developing herbicide-tolerant crops?

A) It is not involved in herbicide tolerance breeding

B) It allows for the selection of transformed cells

C) It induces mutations that confer tolerance

D) It creates polyploid plants

19. Golden Rice is a biofortified variety developed to address deficiency of:

A) Iron

B) Vitamin C

C) Vitamin A

D) Zinc

20. Biofortification refers to:

A) Increasing the toxicity of crops

B) Breeding crops with higher levels of essential nutrients

C) Reducing the yield of crops

D) Developing crops resistant to bio-agents

21. Improved varieties of crops are often bred for increased tolerance to:

A) Herbicide application

B) Waterlogging

C) Salinity

D) All of the above

22. Breeding for disease resistance in crops aims to:

A) Increase the use of pesticides

B) Reduce crop losses due to pathogens

C) Promote the spread of diseases

D) Develop plants that attract more pests

23. Which of the following is a significant application of plant breeding and tissue culture in crop improvement?

A) Developing plants with reduced nutritional value

B) Increasing susceptibility to pests and diseases

C) Enhancing yield and nutritional quality

D) Producing plants that require excessive water

24. Embryo rescue is a technique used when:

A) Hybrid embryos fail to develop normally

B) Plants are infected with viruses

C) Large-scale propagation is needed

D) Haploid plants are desired

25. Haploid plants produced through anther culture are useful because:

A) They are always diploid

B) They can be rapidly converted to homozygous diploid lines

C) They exhibit hybrid vigor

D) They are resistant to all pests

26. Anther culture is a technique used for:

A) Producing haploid plants

B) Eliminating viruses

C) Conserving germplasm

D) Inducing polyploidy

27. Somatic hybridization can be achieved using a process called:

A) Anther culture

B) Protoplast fusion

C) Embryo rescue

D) Meristem culture

28. What is somatic hybridization?

A) The fusion of gametes from different species

B) The fusion of somatic cells from different species or varieties

C) The regeneration of plants from somatic cells

D) The production of polyploid plants

29. Germplasm conservation using tissue culture involves:

A) Rapidly growing plants in the field

B) Storing plant material in a sterile, controlled environment

C) Hybridizing different species

D) Inducing mutations

30. Tissue culture can be used to eliminate viruses from infected plants through:

A) Callus culture

B) Meristem culture

C) Suspension culture

D) Anther culture

31. Which application of tissue culture allows for the rapid multiplication of desirable plant varieties?

A) Virus elimination

B) Germplasm conservation

C) Micropropagation

D) Somatic hybridization

32. What is callus?

A) A fully formed plantlet

B) Undifferentiated mass of cells

C) A specific type of plant hormone

D) A sterile culture medium

33. The process of regenerating a whole plant from a single cell or small piece of tissue is called:

A) Callus formation

B) De-differentiation

C) Redifferentiation

D) Micropropagation

34. What is the role of auxins and cytokinins in plant tissue culture?

A) To provide energy

B) To stimulate cell division and differentiation

C) To act as a source of nitrogen

D) To prevent microbial contamination

35. Which component of the nutrient medium provides essential minerals for plant tissue culture?

A) Sucrose

B) Vitamins

C) Hormones

D) Inorganic salts

36. What is the process of growing plant cells, tissues, or organs in a sterile nutrient medium called?

A) Hybridization

B) Mutation breeding

C) Tissue culture

D) Polyploid breeding

37. What is the primary advantage of using MAS in plant breeding?

A) It is faster and more precise than traditional methods

B) It does not require knowledge of plant genetics

C) It always results in polyploid plants

D) It eliminates the need for hybridization

38. Marker-assisted selection (MAS) allows breeders to:

A) Select plants based on phenotype alone

B) Identify plants with specific genes without growing them to maturity

C) Induce mutations randomly

D) Cross plants of different genera

39. Which breeding technique utilizes molecular markers to identify desirable genes?

A) Mutation breeding

B) Marker-assisted selection (MAS)

C) Polyploid breeding

D) Hybridization

40. Inbred lines are crucial for producing hybrids because:

A) They exhibit high hybrid vigor

B) They are genetically uniform and stable

C) They are resistant to all diseases

D) They produce seeds through apomixis

41. Hybrid vigor, or heterosis, refers to:

A) The reduced yield of hybrid offspring

B) The superior performance of hybrid offspring compared to parents

C) The increased genetic variation within a population

D) The stability of traits in pure lines

42. What is an example of a crop improved through polyploid breeding?

A) Wheat

B) Maize

C) Sugarcane

D) Rice

43. Polyploid breeding is particularly useful for improving:

A) Drought resistance

B) Fruit size and quality

C) Pest resistance

D) Flowering time

44. Which of the following is a common mutagen used in mutation breeding?

A) Gibberellic acid

B) Cytokinin

C) Gamma rays

D) Auxin

45. Mutation breeding involves:

A) Crossing unrelated species

B) Inducing genetic variations using mutagens

C) Selecting superior hybrids

D) Using tissue culture techniques

46. Which term refers to the process of introducing desirable genes from one variety into another through repeated backcrossing?

A) Mutation breeding

B) Polyploid breeding

C) Backcrossing

D) Hybrid vigor

47. What is hybridization in plant breeding?

A) The process of self-pollinating a plant

B) The crossing of genetically dissimilar plants

C) The selection of plants with similar traits

D) The mutation of plant genes

48. Which of the following is a traditional method of plant breeding?

A) Gene editing

B) Hybridization

C) Genetic engineering

D) Marker-assisted selection

49. What is the primary goal of plant breeding?

A) To increase the aesthetic appeal of plants

B) To develop new plant varieties with desirable traits

C) To study the genetic diversity of wild plants

D) To slow down the growth rate of crops

Plant breeding and tissue culture - methods and applications in crop improvement - Question Bank