Résumé
During the past decades, rapid progress has been made in the application of plant biotechnology to agriculture and horticulture, mainly with the assistance from botanists, plant physiologists and molecular geneticists who lack expertise in crop plants, crop husbandry or crop breeding. The literature is pervaded by a feeling that only a few trivial technical problems remain and we are at the threshold of a latter-day agrarian revolution. This is wishful thinking Temperate perennial fruit crops, and grapevines in particular, are subject to special circumstances that can affect or limit the use of tissue culture methods for both plant propagation and plant improvement. Substantial benefits will accrue the grapegrowing industry from further development of tissue culture but advocacy forin vitrotechniques must be tempered by an appreciation of the historical, biological, technical and economic realities of viticultural production.