Commonly Used Terms in Plant Tissue Culture

Plant tissue culture is a fascinating branch of biotechnology that allows scientists to grow plant cells, tissues, or organs in an artificial nutrient medium under sterile conditions. To understand this field clearly, it is important to be familiar with some basic and commonly used terms.

Below is a selected list of key tissue culture terms, explained in an easy, engaging, and reader-friendly way.

1. Explant

An explant is any small piece of plant tissue that is taken from a plant and used to start a tissue culture.

It can be obtained from different parts of a plant such as:

• Leaf
• Stem
• Root
• Bud
• Flower

Once placed on a nutrient culture medium under sterile conditions, the explant can grow, divide, and develop into new plant tissues.

2. Callus

A callus is a mass of unorganized, undifferentiated plant cells.

When an explant is placed in a suitable culture medium containing growth hormones, its cells start dividing rapidly and form a soft, irregular tissue mass called callus.

This callus is mainly made up of parenchymatous cells and serves as a very important stage in plant regeneration and micropropagation.

3. Dedifferentiation

Dedifferentiation is the process in which mature, specialized plant cells lose their specific function and return to a meristematic (actively dividing) state.

In simple words, already developed cells become like “young cells” again.

This happens when explant cells are cultured in a nutrient-rich medium with appropriate plant growth regulators. Dedifferentiation leads to the formation of callus.

4. Redifferentiation

Redifferentiation is the opposite of dedifferentiation.

It refers to the ability of callus cells to develop into specific plant organs such as:

• Shoots
• Roots
• Leaves

Under suitable hormonal conditions, callus can regenerate into a complete plant a process known as plant regeneration.

5. Totipotency

Totipotency is one of the most remarkable properties of plant cells.

It means that a single plant cell has the potential to grow into an entire plant under proper culture conditions.

This ability is the foundation of plant tissue culture, micropropagation, and genetic engineering in plants. Totipotency is possible due to the combined processes of dedifferentiation and redifferentiation.

Conclusion

Understanding these basic tissue culture terms is essential for students of biotechnology, botany, and plant sciences. These concepts form the backbone of modern techniques like micropropagation, genetic transformation, and plant cloning.