Page 142 - phytochemistry general program
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Basic Plant Tissue Culture and its Biotechnological Applications
Introductory History
The term plant tissue culture (PTC) refers to the aseptic cultivation of any plant
segments, single cells, tissues or organs. The idea of plant tissue culture depends
on the fact that each living cell of a multicellular organism would be capable of
developing independently if provided with the proper external conditions.
Currently, tissue-cultured plants that have been genetically engineered to 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. In addition, the management of genetically
engineered cells to form transgenic whole plants requires tissue culture
procedures. Thus, tissue culture techniques have been, and still are, prominent in
academic and applied plant science.
The basis of PTC and modern plant biotechnology depended mainly on the
concept of cellular totipotency (the ability of a single cell to divide and produce a
whole plant) and genetic transformation (genetic alteration caused by the uptake,
stable integration and expression of foreign genetic material).
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