Micropropagation of Guarianthe skinneri (Bateman) Dressler & W. E. Higging in Temporary Immersion Bioreactors

Guarianthe skinneri (Bateman) Dressler & W. E. Higgins is an orchid valued for its ornamental characteristics. However, it is an orchid classified as threatened with extinction due to the illegal extraction from its natural habitat. In addition, its propagation through seed germination is very low, as is the case with most members of the family Orchidaceae. Its asexual propagation through pseudobulb separation is slow and produces a few propagules. For this reason, in vitro propagation techniques are an alternative to increase the number of plants obtained and thus be able to recover this valuable plant genetic resource. Temporary immersion systems (TIS) offer the advantage of mass-propagating plants for different purposes. This chapter describes a large-scale micropropagation protocol for Guarianthe skinneri using temporary immersion bioreactors (TIB).