Research Divisions
Agronomy
Biometry
Crop Protection
Genetics & Plant Breeding
Plant Physiology
Processing Research
Soils and Plant Nutrition
Tissue Culture
Technology Transfer
Tissue Culture Division
| Head/Principal Botanist | Dr. (Mrs.) L K Weerakoon, BSc, MSc, PhD |
| Principal Botanist | Dr. (Mrs.) W N I S Fernando, BSc, MPhil, PhD |
| Senior Botanist | Dr. (Mrs.) V R M Vidhanaarachchi, BSc (Agric), PhD |
| Botanist | Dr. (Mrs.) P I P Perera, BSc (Agric), PhD |
| Botanist | Mrs. H D D Bandupriya*, BSc |
The mission of the Tissue Culture Division is to develop technology for clonal propagation of coconut for mass propagation of superior genotypes and assist the breeders in collection, exchange and conservation of coconut germplasm.
Current Research Programs in the Division
- In vitro culture of different coconut tissues and evaluation of the plants produced
- Biochemical studies of embryogenesis in coconut
- Cell suspension and protoplast culture of coconut
- In vitro culture of coconut endosperm
- Studies on clonal plant characters
- Investigations on pollen, anther and ovule culture of coconut.
- Propagation of Dikiri pol using embryo culture technique
- In vitro screening of drought tolerant coconut plants
- Studies on the improvement of embryo culture technology
- Cryopreservation of coconut embryos