Orchids occupy a significant position in the international floricultural market
because of their spectacularly beautiful flowers with varied sizes, forms, patterns, and
colorations. Apart from their high ornamental values, they are known for therapeutic
application in the traditional medicinal system. However, natural orchid resources are
quickly depleting because of excessive unregulated commercial collection and mass
habitat destruction. Orchid production through conventional propagation methods
cannot meet the present demands for these ornamental plants. Micropropagation of
orchids through plant tissue culture provides an excellent opportunity to propagate
true-to-type quality plants on a large scale rapidly. However, somaclonal variation may
appear in the in vitro clones producing undesired plants with phenotypic and molecular
defects. It is obligatory to test the genetic integrity of the propagated plants to ensure
the production of identical quality orchids. Genetic stable orchids are produced by
evaluating the fidelity of the regenerants using molecular markers. The present chapter
highlights the genetic stability assessment of several micropropagated orchids using
molecular markers and the flow cytometry method.
Keywords: Explants, Flow cytometry, Genetic stability, Molecular markers, Monomorphic, Micropropagation, Orchids, Polyploidy, Polymorphism, Somaclonal variation.
