Cloning plants

Where are cutting made?

By cutting just below a lateral bud, dipping in rooting hormone powder, putting into medium, watering well and covering plastic bag

What is grafting?

A short section of a woody plant is joined to a rootstock (root and stem already growing). The graft then grows and is a clone of the original plant, but the rootstock is genetically different

What is micropropagation?

Process of making large numbers of genetically identical offspring from a single parent plant

What does micropropagation exploit?

Totipotent properties of plants, as a result lots of clones can be produced compared to natural cloning

What does micropropagation allow the clone to be?

Pathogen free as it happens in lab sterile conditions

What is the explant?

As a small piece of tissue is taken from meristematic tissue (shoot tips)

What happens to the surface of the explant?

Sterilised then placed on a growth medium containing nutrients and hormones to stimulate mitosis

What is a callus?

Cells divide to form a mass of undifferentiated cells

What happens to callus cells once they divide?

Placed in growth medium containing shoot and root stimulating hormone, plantlet formed and planted into soil

Advantages of plant cloning

Produces many plants quickly, genetically identical - all have desired characteristics of parent plant, easy to transport/genetically engineer, disease free, infertile plants can be grown, increase numbers of rare or endangered species, useful for studies

Disadvantages of plant cloning

Genetically identical/loss of genetic diversity, suspectible to disease, farmers have to buy plants from suppliers (can be patented properly), expensive, labour intensive, sterile conditions, special equipment, trained staff, electricity/power/costs

What does ethanol do?

Sterilises the plant tissue