6.19 Cloning Plants & Tissue culture

Cuttings - quick & cheap way of cloning desirable plant

1. Find desirable plant you want to clone

2. Cut small part (growing shoot or branch)

3. Place cutting in soil, along with nutrients & maybe hormones

4. Cutting will grow into clone of original plant

Micropropagation (using tissue cultures) - requires more expertise & produces many more clones

1. Find plant with desirable characteristics you want to clone

2. Take small piece of plant tissue (called explants) from tips of stems

3. Sterilise explants to remove any microorganisms

4. Place explants in agar & let them grow into small masses of cells (calluses)

5. Transfer calluses to soil to grow into plantlets (baby plants)

6. Plantlets transferred to own pots to develop into genetically identical adult plants