Plant Tissue Culture: A Review

Abstract

Plant tissue culture refers to growing and multiplication of cells, tissues and organs of plants on defined solid or liquid media under aseptic and controlled environment. The commercial technology is primarily based on micropropagation, in which rapid proliferation is achieved from tinystem cuttings, axillary buds, and to a limited extent from somatic embryos, cell clumps in suspension cultures and bioreactors. The cultured cells and tissue can take several pathways. The pathways that lead to the production of true-to-type plants in large numbers are the preferred ones for commercial multiplication. The process of micropropagation is usually divided into several stages i.e., prepropagation, initiation of explants, subculture of explants for proliferation, shooting and rooting, andhardening. These stages are universally applicable in large-scale multiplication of plants. The delivery of hardened small micropropagated plants to growers and market also requires extra care.