Plant Tissue Culture
102-1
Prof. H. C Wu
History
What’s the history?

1838 – Schwann and Schleiden put
forward the theory which states that cells
are totipotent, and in principle, are capable
of regenerating into a complete plant.

Their theory was the foundation of plant
cell and tissue culture.
What’s the history?

1902 – Haberlandt conducted the first but
unsuccessful attempt of tissue culture
using monocotyledons.

1926 - FW Went demonstrated that there
were growth substances in coleoptiles
from oats.
A. Germination of an oat seed
B. Decapitate tip of coleoptile and place on agar block.
C. Agar block is placed on top of the decapitated tip of the
seedling (what happens?).
D. Agar block is placed on the side of the leaf on the
decapitated tip of the seedling (what happens?).
What’s the history?

1934 - White generated continuously
growing culture of meristematic cells of
tomato on medium containing salts, yeast
extract, sucrose and 3 vitamins (pyridoxine,
thiamine, nicotinic acid).

This established the importance of
additives in tissue culture.
What’s the history?

1939 - Successful continuously growing
cultures of carrot and tobacco.

1948 - Formation of adventitious shoots and
roots in tobacco.
What’s the history?

1952 - Virus-free Dahlia through meristem
culture.

1952 - First successful micrografts.
What’s the history?

1953 - Miller and Skoog discovered kinetin,
a cytokinin that plays an active role in
organogenesis.

1953 – Haploid callus of Ginkgo biloba
produced from pollen.
What’s the history?

1954 – First plant grown from a single cell.

1957 - Discovery that root or shoot
formation in culture depends on auxin:
cytokinin ratio.
What’s the history?

1958 – Regeneration of somatic embryos
in vitro from citrus.

1958 - Pro-embryo formation in callus
clumps and cell suspension of carrot.
What’s the history?

1960 - Enzymatic degradation of cell wall
for protoplast formation.

1960 - Vegetative propagation of orchids
by meristem culture.
What’s the history?

1962 - Development of
the Murashige and
Skoog (MS) medium.
Folke K. Skoog 1908–2001
What’s the history?

1965 – Induction of flowering in tobacco
tissue in vitro.

1966 - Steward demonstrated totipotency
by regenerating carrot plants from single
cells of tomato.
What’s the history?

In the 60’s and 70’s - Murashige cloned
plants in vitro:



Raised haploid plants from pollen grains in many
plant species.
First achievement of protoplast fusion
In the 70’s and 80’s - beginning of genetic
engineering.