Discuss how the property of plant cell totipotency has been utilised for plant propagation and improvement

• Tissue culture is the method through which we can produce thousands of plants of same type by a single cell. This ability of development of whole plant from single cell is known as totipotency.

• In this, an explants or any part of the plant is selected and is grown in test tube.

• The growth takes place under sterile conditions in special nutrient medium which contains carbon source, inorganic salts, amino acids, vitamins and other growth regulators.

• A whole plant can be generated from a single plant cell or an explant.

• Totipotency helps in the production of thousands of plants that are genetically similar. This large scale production of plants is known as micro-propagation.

• The tissue culture also helps in the recovery of the healthy plant from a diseased plant. Because even if the plant is affected with the virus, the meristems are free from it. Hence, the healthy meristems are removed from the plant and grown in vitro conditions to obtain virus free or healthy plants.