ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses tissue culture and molecular biology of amaranth, as well as the future prospects for this crop in modern biotechnology. Amaranth production in 1990 was over 100,000 ha in the Soviet Union and was used mainly as a forage crop. Among other principal producers of grain amaranth are China, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, India, and Kenya. The first reported studies about tissue cultures of amaranth were done using A. cruentus, A. hypochondriacus, and A. tricolor. Molecular biology techniques have been the most powerful tool for the transfer of specific and new genetic information into living organisms. The procedures of plant molecular biology are already established for many species and are used for research and applied purposes. In the maize model, the attainment of highly embryogenic, pale, friable, and fast growing callus tissues was considered as a requisite for transformation. This type of callus is genotype dependent and obtained at low frequency.
