Pakistan Gardening Forum

Hello Everybody

Am back after quite long time... still not in pak though.

Does anybody know how to tissue culture plants.... I wana start learning it.

Interesting query. Let's see if we have someone in the forum with first hand experience. I wonder if Imran can help, he's the new horticulturist on the forum.

The commercial ventures to my knowledge all failed. Is there a tissue culture centre in Pakistan?

Muhammad Arif Khan wrote:The commercial ventures to my knowledge all failed. Is there a tissue culture centre in Pakistan?

Yes, Arif sahab- We do have a tissue culture center in HEJ Institute of Natural Products Chemistry, University of Karachi. They have been successfully growing orchids via tissue culture. They used to sell plants on the university road. I am sure other agricultrual universities must have the centers since it a pretty common technique.

As to the original question by Mr Waqas, tissue culture requires a proper laboratory but have a look here:

http://www.omnisterra.com/botany/cp/slides/tc/tc.htm

It would be an interesting venture, Keep us up to date on your project.

Well guys.I tried it.There are several steps involved in TC technique.


1-You need to have a parent plant.Leaves,roots,buds,stem anything should work.You need live cells basically.

2-Sterilization includes the strelization of explant (leaf/buds/root etc) and also the sterilization of TC media.

3-TC Media is the medium where you keep the explant.The TC media is contained in a glass bottle or petri dish.The media contains AGAR (the gelatine),Water,Sugar (30gm to a litre),Vitamins,Plants hormones including 6-BAP,NAA,Giberallic acid etc and something to keep the media from contamination (Plant preservative mixture for instance).

4-The media is boiled in high pressure and then cooled.It kills all the chances of contamination.The explant is sterilized using diluted bleach.

5-The explant is cultured in tc media and kept under lights at a temp of 27C.If everything goes well the explant starts to swell and forms a huge mass of unorganized cells called callous, which forms shoots later.The plants are rooted in the next stage.

I succeeded in getting a callous but the shoots didn't form because the formulationwas not right.UI tried it with gerberas.I am sure I'd have succeeded with other plants .