Plant Tissue Culture

Plant tissue and cell culture describes the sterile growth and multiplication of plant cells, tissues, and organs in vitro. Plant cells cultured with nutrient media in an artificial environment can be clonally propagated at scale, to more quickly produce mature and disease-free plants. High-quality, uniform planting materials can be rapidly propagated for applications in molecular genetic engineering, plant breeding, horticultural production, and environmental conservation. Such materials can also be used for plant science, phycology, and pharmaceutical research.   

In many common plant cell culture processes such as seed culture, meristem culture, callus culture, bud culture, and another culture, tissues are placed on a gel substrate such as Murashige and Skoog (often called MS media, MSO, or MS0) or Gamborg B5 medium. Tissues may also be placed into a liquid medium, as is the case with cell suspension culture. The plant culture media formulation may include macronutrients, micronutrients, vitamins and organic supplements, amino acids and nitrogen supplements, plant growth hormones and plant growth regulators (PGRs), and will vary depending on specific plant needs.

Recent developments in bioengineering and plant science have advanced plant tissue and cell culture processes.