Terms Used In Tissue Culture

 A selected list of the most commonly used terms in tissue culture are briefly explained

Explant: An excised piece of differentiated tissue or organ is regarded as an explant. The explant may be taken from any part of the plant body e.g., leaf, stem, root.

Callus: The unorganized and undifferentiated mass of plant cells is referred to as callus. Generally, when plant cells are cultured in a suitable medium, they divide to form callus i.e., a mass of parenchymatous cells.

Dedifferentiation: The phenomenon of mature cells reverting to meristematic state to produce callus is dedifferentiation. Dedifferentiation is possible since the non dividing quiescent cells of the explant, when grown in a suitable culture medium revert to meristematic state.

Redifferentiation: The ability of the callus cells to differentiate into a plant organ or a whole plant is regarded as redifferentiation.

Totipotency: The ability of an individual cell to develop into a whole plant is referred to as cellular totipotency. The inherent characteristic features of plant cells namely dedifferentiation and redifferentiation are phenomenon of totipotency.