What is Tissue Culture and why do we use it?

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What is Tissue Culture?

Tissue culture is when a piece of plant is put into the tiniest of greenhouses...a test tube....and a miracle takes place. If the test tube is free of micro-organisms and the media in the test tube has the correct balance of chemicals and growth hormones, that little piece of plant will reproduce replicas or clones of the single parent plant. That little piece of plant material can replicate in incredible numbers so theoretically, one small piece can produce an infinite number of clones.

tissuesample.jpg (14445 bytes)
From these humble beginnings,
theoretically infinite numbers can be
produced from tissue culture samples.
What is the process?
Plants are first initiated, which means they are surface sterilized and small buds or growing tips are placed on media which has the right amount of fertilizer, vitamins and growth regulators. This "soup" is solidified by agar - something like Jell-O so that the plants can stand up straight and have nutrients diffuse to the plant and also have toxins diffuse away from the plant. Growth regulators incorporated into the media such as BAP, TDZ , Auxins such as IBA, IAA determine what the plant does. Once, clean in culture, the plant is multiplied which means that roughly every 2 to 3 weeks, the plant material is removed from the jar or test-tube, divided and trimmed as required and put back onto fresh media. This work is done in a laminar flow through hood. The hood uses hepa filters which clean to point two microns. The plants are placed on paper towel which have been sterilized in an autoclave. Work is very fussy and a sterile technique has to be learned. When the required numbers of plants have been grown, the media is changed and often, but not always, the plants are put onto Elongation media so that good micro cuttings can be harvested. The final stage is rooting and again, that can be done in the lab using a different media or a greenhouse employing a sophisticated propagation greenhouse. The cuttings are rootless and very perishable at this stage and require a great deal of attention.

So what is a clone and what is the offspring of a seed?
Seeds are the result of sexual reproduction and each seed has its own genetic make up unique from other seeds and unique from either parent plant. Tissue cultured plants are micro propagated cuttings or clones, genetically identical to the mother and all the daughter plants.

Why is tissue culture used?
Tissue culture is used for many reasons but the 3 major reasons DNA Gardens are concerned with are 1) Large quantities of plant production for the sake of volume, 2) to speed up the production of new varieties into the market place. Large amounts of plants can be produced in a very short time compared to conventional propagation methods, 3) to establish and maintain virus free stock as in the case of the seed potato industry. Working in a tissue culture lab is like working in a hospital operating room. Sanitation is imperative. If the plant cultures become infected with fungus or bacteria, the contaminants soon over take and kill the cultures. Other applications include protoplast fusion and the induction and selection of mutants and the biosynthesis of plant metabolites. The end result, lovely, clean plants.

DNA Gardens Tissue Culture Lab Photos

Regulating Environmental Factors

Separating Tissue Samples

Dispensing Media

DNA Gardens
Toll free phone: 1-866-NUPLANT 1-866-687-5268
Telephone: 403 773-2489
Fax: 403 773-2400
Email: office@dnagardens.com

Top Photo: Karen Hamlyn displays tissue culture samples in the DNA lab.
Jan 2008