Orchids belong to one of the largest, most diversified and interesting families of flowering plants in the world with about 30,000–35,000 species distributed around the world. Orchid cultivation has resulted in about 250,000 cultivars and over 160,000 hybrid greges offering a wide array of colors and patterns of ornamental appeal, as well as reported medicinal value in some species. The popularity of orchids in the United States has increased in the last 15 years due to increased knowledge in cultivation practices and propagation methods, making them more accessible to customers, while offering new and improved material to growers. Today orchids rank first among potted floriculture crops in the United States. Biotechnology techniques have contributed to the advances in orchid production and conservation, including in vitro propagation methods, such as in vitro germination of orchid seeds, micropropagation techniques, and large-scale mass propagation bioreactor systems. Additional advanced techniques, such as synthetic seed technology provided a system for both the propagation and short-term conservation of orchid seeds, while cryopreservation of orchid seeds, protocorms, and pollen provided valuable tools for orchid breeding, genetic improvement, and long-term conservation. Additional topics related to orchid biotechnology address the utilization of molecular markers, gene technology (genetic transformation), phytochemistry, physiology, disease control, sequencing, and genomics, among other more specific topics, and have been covered elsewhere. This review aims to provide an overview of the current methods in biotechnology that are most directly applied to orchid production and conservation, including advances in the latest technologies available, therefore focusing on in vitro propagation, bioreactor, synthetic seed, and cryopreservation technologies.
