Years ago I spoke with the man in charge of the lab at Agri-Starts and asked him why they didn't tissue culture the 'Mickey Mouse' taro. He explained it didn't work well, somewhere south of 5% MM was all they would get out of a 72 cell tray, the rest would be normal Xanthosoma atrovirens. There are different ways plants can be variegated, if it is genetic, them it does culture, but he told me in this case it was a chimera....the plant contained two different genotypes. The presumption is that a cell near the tip of the apical meristem (the growing tip) mutated causing the variegation in the now second type of tissue. Maybe the mutation can also cause rippling in the tissue under certain conditions? Chimeral variegation, he explained, does not TC well, as when they extract tissue from the apical meristem, most does not contain the mutation. Viruses can also use variegation, but viral variegation is rare and not stable, so usually reverts to normal. I have never had a Mickey revert, have you?
Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is. And you must bend to its power or live a lie.”― Miyamoto Musashi
"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens." ~ Jimi Hendrix
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”― Stephen Hawking
Craig