Alstroemeria plants and its biotechnological applications

Alstroemeria plants are widely cultivated in many countries especially in Western Europe and North America and popularity has increased in recently due to its long-base life, large variety of colors and low energy requirement during cultivation period. So far, more than 60 species have been released on the commercial market in the world. To meet the demand of consumer and develop the elite Alstroemeria cultivars, conventional breeding including crass-hybridization and selection as well as mutation breeding were used. However, as other important ornamental plants such as lily, rose, carnation and orchids accepted the biotechnological methods, this newly-born approach should be applied and developed an optimized the genetic transformation system. Then, this biotechnological approach can be fused with the conventional breeding methods and thus can be contributed to the production of elite Alstroemeria plants containing agriculturally good genetic traits which are useful for the both farmers and consumers in the future. In this paper, we reviewed the botanical and genetical features of Alstroemeria plants and its biotechnological approaches in the last decades.