Final answer:
Tissue culture provides a way to quickly produce disease-resistant plants in sterile environments, essential for addressing issues such as the papaya ringspot virus that threatened Hawaii's papaya industry.
Step-by-step explanation:
The advantage of growing papaya plants from tissue culture rather than from seeds is that tissue culture allows for the production of disease-resistant and genetically uniform plants. This method, known as micropropagation, generates a large number of plants quickly and under sterile conditions, which is particularly useful when dealing with rare or economically important species that are difficult to grow naturally. As seen with the Hawaiian papaya industry crisis, tissue culture was pivotal in addressing the papaya ringspot virus (PRV) by creating plants that incorporate PRV DNA and thus resist the virus. This not only ensured a continual supply of healthy papayas but also preserved the livelihood of many farmers affected by the disease.
In addition to virus resistance, tissue culture possesses other benefits such as faster growth into adult plants compared to those from seeds and the ability to propagate plants that are unable to produce viable seeds. However, it is worth noting that while asexual propagation like micropropagation ensures uniformity and can protect against certain diseases, it may also increase crop vulnerability to widespread issues due to genetic uniformity.