Plant tissue culture

Plant tissue culture is a collection of techniques used to maintain or grow plant cells, tissues, or organs under sterile conditions on a nutrient culture medium of known composition. It is widely used to produce clones of a plant in a method known as <a href="/facts/Micropropagation/mhzlonDU">micropropagation</a>. Different techniques in plant tissue culture may offer certain advantages over traditional methods of propagation, including:

<ul><li>The production of exact copies of plants that produce particularly good flowers, fruits, or other desirable traits.</li>
<li>To quickly produce mature plants.</li>
<li>To produce a large number of plants in a reduced space.</li>
<li>The production of multiples of plants in the absence of seeds or necessary pollinators to produce seeds.</li>
<li>The regeneration of whole plants from plant cells that have been genetically modified.</li>
<li>The production of plants in sterile containers allows them to be moved with greatly reduced chances of transmitting diseases, pests, and pathogens.</li>
<li>The production of plants from seeds that otherwise have very low chances of germinating and growing, e.g., <a href="/facts/Orchids/UKmu0DhW">orchids</a> and <a href="/facts/Nepenthes/c0IhLcbI">Nepenthes</a>.</li>
<li>To clean particular plants of viral and other infections and to quickly multiply these plants as 'cleaned stock' for horticulture and agriculture.</li>
<li>Reproduce recalcitrant plants required for <a href="/facts/Land_restoration/1hMNSVDd">land restoration</a></li>
<li>Storage of genetic plant material to safeguard native plant species.</li></ul>
Plant tissue culture relies on the fact that many plant parts have the ability to regenerate into a whole plant (cells of those regenerative plant parts are called <a href="/facts/Totipotent/81323LbR">totipotent</a> cells which can <a href="/facts/Cell_differentiation/bCVqUG7w">differentiate</a> into various specialized cells). Single cells, plant cells without cell walls (<a href="/facts/Protoplast/bQkUkF6F">protoplasts</a>), pieces of leaves, stems or roots can often be used to generate a new plant on culture media given the required nutrients and <a href="/facts/Plant_hormones/h3noouev">plant hormones</a>.

Plant tissue culture open-in-new

Plant tissue culture