Plant tissue culture techniques are essential to many types of academic inquiry, as well as to
many applied aspects of plant science. In the past, plant tissue culture techniques have been used in
academic investigations of totipotency and the roles of hormones in cytodifferentiation and
organogenesis. Currently, tissue-cultured plants that have been genetically engineered provide
insight into plant molecular biology and gene regulation. Plant tissue culture techniques are also
central to innovative areas of applied plant science, including plant biotechnology and agriculture.
For example, select plants can be cloned and cultured as suspended cells from which plant products
can be harvested. In addition, the management of genetically engineered cells to form transgenic
whole plants requires tissue culture procedures; tissue culture methods are also required in the
formation of somatic haploid embryos from which homozygous plants can be generated. Thus,
tissue culture techniques have been, and still are, prominent in academic and applied plant science.
The techniques demonstrated in these exercises range from simple ones that can easily be
performed by beginning students to those done by botany or physiology students. Experiment 1 and
2 employ plant material derived from aseptic seed germinations, while Experiments 3, 4, and 5 use
portions of large intact plants. Experiment 1 demonstrates "in vitro" morphogenesis and totipotency
and has been used successfully by beginning classes containing both biology majors and non-majors