Plant cells from which the cell walls have beenenzymatically or mechanically removed are called protoplasts.
The protoplasts are theoretically totipotent and can be usedas sources of somatic cell fusion in practical breedingprograms. Wild Solanum species have often been used assources of important agricultural traits including diversedisease resistance. However, they cannot often be directlyapplied to breeding programs due to their sexual incompatibilitywith S. tuberosum. Somatic hybridization viaprotoplast fusion is one of the ideal methods to overcome thislimitation and to introgress certain traits into S. tuberosum.
This technique has still widely been used in potato since thefirst fusion was reported in 1970s. Therefore, this reviewhighlights general perspectives of protoplast fusion anddiscusses the application of protoplast fusion in potatobreeding.