Plant Tissue Culture

Plant Tissue Culture is an integral part of plant biotechnology, and has resulted in many frontier research findings. Plant tissue culture is the technique of maintaining and growing plant cells, tissues or organs especially on artificial medium in suitable containers under controlled environmental conditions. Tissue Culture is used in Micropropagation i.e. large scale propagation of plants in very short durations. Many important food plants like tomato, banana, apple etc. have been produced on the commercial scale using this method. Tissue culture technique is also the best method for storing germplasm and maintaining a specific genetic type (Clone). This technique is used in those plants which produce recalcitrant seeds or produce highly variable seeds.

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. They are most similar to the undifferentiated cells found in meristematic regions which become fated to develop into each cell type as the plant grows. Tissue cultured cells can also be induced to redifferentiate into whole plants by alterations to the growth media. This book on plant tissue culture deals with the principles and most of the techniques being employed in the tissue culture.