tissue culture

 

the propagation of plants through the placement of small amounts of undifferentiated tissue or single cells in an artificial environment. The tissue is placed in a nutrient medium that favors the production of roots and shoots, and is later planted normally. By using tissue culture, the favorable qualities of plants can be precisely controlled, so that each plant is identical for the particular quality being sought, whether it be disease resistance or plant chemical production.

Tissue culture is the growth of tissues and/or cells separate from the organism. This is typically facilitated via use of a liquid, semi-solid, or solid growth media, such as broth or agar. Tissue culture commonly refers to the culture of animal cells and tissues, while the more specific term plant tissue culture is used for plants.

Historical usage

In 1885 Wilhelm Roux removed a portion of the medullary plate of an embryonic chicken and maintained it in a warm saline solution for several days, establishing the basic principle of tissue culture.^[1]

In 1907 the zoologist Ross Granville Harrison demonstrated the growth of frog nerve cell processes in a medium of clotted lymph.

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Modern usage

Main article: cell culture

In modern usage, "tissue culture" generally refers to the growth of eukaryotic cells in vitro. It is often used interchangeably with cell culture to specifically describe the in vitro culturing of mammalian cells.

However, "tissue culture" can also be used to refer to the culturing of tissue pieces, i.e. explant culture or whole organs, i.e. organ culture.

References

See also

• Cell culture
• Organ culture

External links

• Splitting and Passaging Cells in Tissue Culture
• www.research.umbc.edu/~jwolf/method5.htm - how-to guide for biology students
• Plant Tissue Culture - way to "xerox" a plant
• CELOS - a division of CELOS (Center for Agricultural Research in Suriname)

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