Tissue culture

Overview

How a plant is grown from a small sample on a nutrient medium with auxins and cytokinins, why sterile conditions matter, and the uses in breeding, conservation and medical research.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is tissue culture?

   Model answer

   It is growing new cells, tissues or whole plants from a small sample of cells on a nutrient medium.

2. 2

   Describe how a new plant is produced by tissue culture.

   Model answer

   A small piece of tissue is cut from a fast-growing part of the parent plant, sterilised and placed on a nutrient medium containing plant hormones, where the cells divide into a mass that then develops shoots and roots.

3. 3

   Explain why tissue culture must be carried out under sterile conditions.

   Model answer

   Bacteria and fungi would grow rapidly on the rich nutrient medium and would outcompete or kill the plant cells.

4. 4

   Which plant hormones are added to the growth medium in plant tissue culture?

   Model answer

   Auxins and cytokinins, which control the development of roots and shoots.

5. 5

   Explain why all the plants produced from one tissue culture are genetically identical.

   Model answer

   The cells divide by mitosis, which copies the parent's DNA exactly into every new cell.

6. 6

   Give two advantages of tissue culture in a plant breeding programme.

   Model answer

   Thousands of copies of a plant with a desirable characteristic can be made very quickly, and they can be grown at any time of year from only a tiny piece of tissue.

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