Plant Tissue Culture Principles

Plant Tissue Culture

• Plant tissue culture is the in vitro aseptic culture of cells, tissues, organs, or whole plants under controlled nutritional and environmental conditions to produce clones of plants.
• It relies on the ability of many plant cells to regenerate a whole plant (totipotency).
• The technique involves growing plant cells, tissues, or organs under sterile conditions on a nutrient culture medium of known composition.

Principle of Plant Tissue Culture

• Single cells, protoplasts, pieces of leaves, stems, or roots can be used to generate a new plant on culture media with required nutrients and plant hormones.
• Controlled conditions provide an environment conducive for growth and multiplication.
• Conditions include proper supply of nutrients, pH medium, adequate temperature, and proper gaseous and liquid environment.

Plant Tissue Culture Technique

• Preparation of plant tissue is performed under aseptic conditions using a laminar flow cabinet.
• Tissue is grown in sterile containers, such as Petri dishes or flasks, in a growth room with controlled temperature and light intensity.
• Plant materials are sterilized with sodium or calcium hypochlorite to remove microorganisms before taking explants.
• Sterile explants are placed on the surface of a sterile solid culture medium or in a sterile liquid medium.
• Solid media are prepared from liquid media with the addition of a gelling agent, usually purified agar.
• The composition of the medium, particularly plant hormones and nitrogen source, affects the morphology of the tissues that grow.

Applications and Advantages

• Plant tissue culture technology is used for large-scale plant multiplication, disease elimination, plant improvement, and production of secondary metabolites.
• Small pieces of tissue (explants) can be used to produce hundreds and thousands of plants in a continuous process.
• A single explant can be multiplied into several thousand plants in a relatively short time period and space under controlled conditions.
• Endangered, threatened, and rare species have been successfully grown and conserved by micropropagation due to the high coefficient of multiplication.