Plant tissue culture technology has been widely used in large scale plant multiplication. In addition to being a research tool, plant tissue culture technology has important industrial significance in plant propagation, disease elimination, plant improvement, and secondary metabolite production. Depending on the inherent potential of a single plant cell to express the full genome by cell division, namely cellular totipotency, plant tissues and organs can be grown in artificial media in an aseptic and controlled environment. Plant tissue culture medium contains all the nutrients needed for normal plant growth and development. The main components of the medium are macronutrients, micronutrients, vitamins, growth regulators, carbon sources, other organic components, and gelling agents.
Plant growth regulators (PGRs), also called as plant growth hormones, play a crucial role in determining the developmental pathways of plant cells and tissues in culture media. There are five types of plant hormones, namely auxin, gibberellin (GA), cytokinin, abscisic acid (ABA) and ethylene, of which auxin, cytokinin and GA are the most commonly used. The type and concentration of hormones chosen depends largely on the type of plant, the tissue or organ being cultured, and the purpose of the research. Auxin and cytokinin are widely used in plant tissue culture, and their content in media determines the type of culture established or regenerated. High concentrations of auxin generally promote root formation, while high concentrations of cytokinin promote shoot regeneration. The balance of auxin and cytokinin leads to the formation of undifferentiated cell masses (callus). GAs are added to plant tissue culture media and usually diminish or prevent the formation of roots, shoots, or somatic erabryos, although the opposite has been observed. In addition, GAs have numerous interactions with other hormones. For example, GA-induced a-amylase activity is antagonized by ABA.
Amerigo Scientific offers high quality and general reagents for plant culture, such as gelling agents, growth regulators, and transformation selective agents.
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