Plant tissue culture for biotechnology

Plant tissue culture involves excising plant tissues and growing them on nutrient media. It is used rather broadly to include several variations, such as meristem culture for propagation of virus-free plants, protoplast culture, cell suspension culture, tissue and organ culture, and anther or pollen culture for producing haploid plants. This chapter focuses on various technical aspects of plant tissue culture. A suitable explant is selected and prepared for culture, and later incubated on an appropriate nutrient medium for growth and differentiation. The basic laboratory setup, handling of explant tissue, nutrient medium and establishing the culture, and incubation of cultures are also discussed in this study. A laboratory that can handle plant biochemistry or physiology-type experiments meets most of the general requirements of plant tissue culture. It is a valuable tool for research on morphogenesis, cell signaling, physiology, and molecular biology, as well as crop improvement by biotechnology. The implications of plant tissue culture technology for agricultural biotechnology is immense.