Plant tissue culture is a specialized technology used for plant propagation. It operates on the principle of growing disease free plant tissues under sterile conditions in artificial plant growth medium.
Tissue Culture at a Glance
- A superior plant is identified, checked, and verified to have all of the growth characteristics particular to the variety.
- We designate these plants to be the mother plants or the donor of plant tissues to start the tissue culture process.
- The mother plant should be healthy and free from all microorganisms. A laboratory disease-testing program is followed to verify freedom from bacteria, viruses and other disease organisms.
- A growing point or meristem is removed from a plant and placed into culturing flasks containing appropriate nutrient media and growth promoting conditions.
- The plant tissues grow on a nutrient rich culture medium in a sterile environment.
- Bacteria and fungi are excluded from the mother plant. It is also necessary to exclude these organisms from the growth of the plant tissue; therefore, all manipulations are carried out under sterile conditions.