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CLONING PLANTS BY TISSUE CULTURE
by Michael H. Renfroe, Ph.D.
Many plants are cloned by tisssue culture techniques and sold commercially. Some of the ferns such as Boston fern and staghorn fern are propagated through tissue culture. Also, many varieties of African violet are propagated asexually by tissue culture.
We can take a leaf from a plant like the plant below.
The leaf is then cleaned of contaminating microorganisms, fungal spores, small insects or whoever might be on board.
Continue to Part 2
CLONING PLANTS BY TISSUE CULTURE
by Michael H. Renfroe
Part 2
The leaf is then cut into small pieces in a laminar flow hood that provides a clean working surface. The small pieces of plant tissue that are cut out of the leaf are called explants. Below you can see what they look like.
The explants are then placed on a chemical medium that provides nutrients for the plant tissues to grow and usually some plant hormones to encourage development of new organs from the plant tissue. Below is an explant that has been placed on a chemical medium inside a test tube.
If you look at an explant with a scanning electron microscope, it would look like this.
From this explant, new shoots would start to develop. Before they were obvious to you, as they just started to develop, they would look like this with the scanning electron microscope.
Continue to Part 3
Back to Part 1
CLONING PLANTS BY TISSUE CULTURE
by Michael H. Renfroe
Part 3
After six to eight weeks, the explant will develop new shoots, as below.
These shoots may be cut free from the explant, and placed in a larger container on a new medium that will help roots to develop.
The rooted plant can then be transferred to soil. At this stage, the humidity must be kept high until the plant can adjust to the new surroundings. This process of adjustment is called acclimatization, and involves the growth of new leaves that will function in the less humid room air.
The cover is slowly opened more and more over a two week period so that the plant can gradually adjust. Then the cover can be removed completely and you have a new African violet plant.
From one original violet, you may produce hundreds of genetically identical plants.
Because the plants are genetically identical, and are of similar developmental age, they tend to produce flowers at the same time. This is very important to someone who is growing the plants and wants to get them to market just as they start to flower.
Many flowering plants are propagated this way. I hope you enjoyed learning more about how plants may be cloned using tissue culture.
If you want a more detailed explanation, please visit my Getting Started in Tissue Culture web page.
Back to Part 2
Go to beginning of Cloning Plants by Tissue Culture.
by Michael H. Renfroe, Ph.D.
Many plants are cloned by tisssue culture techniques and sold commercially. Some of the ferns such as Boston fern and staghorn fern are propagated through tissue culture. Also, many varieties of African violet are propagated asexually by tissue culture.
We can take a leaf from a plant like the plant below.
The leaf is then cleaned of contaminating microorganisms, fungal spores, small insects or whoever might be on board.
Continue to Part 2
CLONING PLANTS BY TISSUE CULTURE
by Michael H. Renfroe
Part 2
The leaf is then cut into small pieces in a laminar flow hood that provides a clean working surface. The small pieces of plant tissue that are cut out of the leaf are called explants. Below you can see what they look like.
The explants are then placed on a chemical medium that provides nutrients for the plant tissues to grow and usually some plant hormones to encourage development of new organs from the plant tissue. Below is an explant that has been placed on a chemical medium inside a test tube.
If you look at an explant with a scanning electron microscope, it would look like this.
From this explant, new shoots would start to develop. Before they were obvious to you, as they just started to develop, they would look like this with the scanning electron microscope.
Continue to Part 3
Back to Part 1
CLONING PLANTS BY TISSUE CULTURE
by Michael H. Renfroe
Part 3
After six to eight weeks, the explant will develop new shoots, as below.
These shoots may be cut free from the explant, and placed in a larger container on a new medium that will help roots to develop.
The rooted plant can then be transferred to soil. At this stage, the humidity must be kept high until the plant can adjust to the new surroundings. This process of adjustment is called acclimatization, and involves the growth of new leaves that will function in the less humid room air.
The cover is slowly opened more and more over a two week period so that the plant can gradually adjust. Then the cover can be removed completely and you have a new African violet plant.
From one original violet, you may produce hundreds of genetically identical plants.
Because the plants are genetically identical, and are of similar developmental age, they tend to produce flowers at the same time. This is very important to someone who is growing the plants and wants to get them to market just as they start to flower.
Many flowering plants are propagated this way. I hope you enjoyed learning more about how plants may be cloned using tissue culture.
If you want a more detailed explanation, please visit my Getting Started in Tissue Culture web page.
Back to Part 2
Go to beginning of Cloning Plants by Tissue Culture.
