GPGCM ATD

ROLL NO: 127125

ASSIGNMENT NO: 3
SUBMITTED TO: MAM zainab
SUBMITTED BY: WAQAR UN
NISA
DATE: 26/7/2016

Plant Tissue Culture:

Plant tissue culture broadly refers to the in vitro cultivation of plants, seeds and
various parts of the plants (organs, embryos, tissues, single cells, protoplasts).
The cultivation process is invariably carried out in a nutrient culture medium under
aseptic conditions.
Plant cells have certain advantages over animal cells in culture systems. Unlike
animal cells, highly mature and differentiated plant cells retain the ability of
totipotency i.e. the ability of change to meristematic state and differentiate into a
whole plant.

Types of Culture:
Callus culture:
This involves the culture of differentiated tissue from explant which dedifferentiates in vitro to
form callus.

Organ culture:
Culture of isolated plant organs is referred to as organ culture. The organ used may be embryo,
seed, root, endosperm, anther, ovary, ovule, meristem (shoot tip) or nucellus. The organ culture
may be organized or unorganized.

Organized organ culture:

When a well-organized structure of a plant (seed, embryo) is used in culture, it is referred to as
organized culture. In this type of culture, the characteristic individual organ structure is
maintained and the progeny formed is similar in structure as that of the original organ.

Unorganized organ culture:

This involves the isolation of cells or tissues of a part of the organ, and their culture in vitro.
Unorganized culture results in the formation of callus. The callus can be dispersed into
aggregates of cells and/or single cells to give a suspension culture.

Cell culture:
The culture of isolated individual cells, obtained from an explant tissue or callus is regarded as
cell culture. These cultures are carried out in dispension medium and are referred to as cell
suspension cultures.

Protoplast culture:
Plant protoplasts (i.e., cells devoid of cell walls) are also used in the laboratory for culture.

Basic Technique of Plant Tissue Culture:

The requisite explants (buds, stem, seeds) are trimmed and then subjected to sterilization in a
detergent solution. After washing in sterile distilled water, the explants are placed in a suitable
culture medium (liquid or semisolid form) and incubated. This results in the establishment of
culture. The mother cultures can be subdivided, as frequently as needed, to give daughter
cultures.
The most important aspect of in vitro culture technique is to carry out all the operations under
aseptic conditions. Bacteria and fungi are the most common contaminants in plant tissue culture.
They grow much faster in culture and often kill the plant tissue.
Further, the contaminants also produce certain compounds which are toxic to the plant tissue.
Therefore, it is absolutely essential that aseptic conditions are maintained throughout the tissue
culture operations. Some of the culture techniques are described here while a few others are
discussed at appropriate places.

Benefits of Plant Tissue Culture:

Plant tissue culture is one of the most rapidly growing areas of biotechnology because of its high
potential to develop improved crops and ornamental plants. With the advances made in the tissue
culture technology, it is now possible to regenerate species of any plant in the laboratory.
To achieve the target of creating a new plant or a plant with desired characteristics, tissue culture
is often coupled with recombinant DNA technology. The techniques of plant tissue culture have
largely helped in the green revolution by improving the crop yield and quality.
The knowledge obtained from plant tissue cultures has contributed to our understanding of
metabolism, growth, differentiation and morphogenesis of plant cells. Further, developments in
tissue culture have helped to produce several pathogen-free plants, besides the synthesis of many
biologically important compounds, including pharmaceuticals. Because of the wide range of
applications, plant tissue culture attracts the attention of molecular biologists, plant breeders and
industrialists.

The plant growth and development occur in two different ways:

1. Determinate growth:

This is characterized by ceasation of growth as the plant parts attain certain size and shape, e.g.,
leaves, flowers, fruits.

2. Indeterminate growth:
This refers to the continuous growth of roots and stems under suitable conditions. It is possible
due to the presence of meristems (in stems and roots) which can proliferate continuously. As the
seed germinates and seedling emerges, the meristematic cells of the root apex multiply. Above
the root apex, the cells grow in length without multiplication.
Some of the elongated cells of the outer layer develop into root hairs to absorb water and
nutrients from the soil. As the plant grows, root cells differentiate into phloem and xylem.
Phloem is responsible for the absorption of nutrients while xylem absorbs water.
The meristematic cells of the shoot apex divide leading to the growth of stem. Some of the stem
cells differentiate and develop into leaf primordia, and then leaves. Axillary buds present
between the leaf primordia and elongated stem also possess meristems which can multiply and
give rise to branches and flowers.