Plant tissue culture

Tissue culture (often called micropropagation) is a special type of asexual propagation where a very small piece of tissue (shoot apex, leaf section, or even an individual cell) is excised (cut-out) and placed in sterile (aseptic) culture in a test tube, petri dish or tissue culture container containing a special culture medium.

The culture medium contains a gel (agar) with the proper mixture of nutrients, sugars, vitamins and hormones, which causes the plant part to grow at very rapid rates to produce new plantlets.  It has been estimated that one chrysanthemum apex placed in tissue culture could produce up to 1,000,000 new plantlets in one year.  Thus, tissue culture is used for rapid multiplication of plants.  A very specialized laboratory is required for tissue culture.  All the procedures are done in a laboratory and special ventilated cabinet that is as sterile as an operating room.