BIOLOGY
OPTIONS
Genetics: The Code Broken?
Extension Activity
Secondary source investigation
Identify data sources, choose equipment or resources, gather, process and analyse information from
secondary sources to describe the processes used in tissue culture and use available evidence to
evaluate the impact of tissue culture on the horticultural industry
Background Information
Plant tissue culture is about artificially supporting, in nutritive solutions or mediums, the growth as well as
the development, of plant cells which have been isolated, tissues and or organs. The nutritive mediums
known also as culture mediums are axenic meaning that no life form other than the plant tissue is present.
Specific time frames are used for culture mediums with the plant tissues transferred to fresh mediums
Aim
a)
To identify data sources, choose equipment or resources gather, process and analyse information
from secondary sources
b)
To describe the processes used in tissue culture
c)
To evaluate the impact of tissue culture on the horticulture industry
Method
Website http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/tisscult/tcintro.html an information exchange site for researchers
world wide on tissue culture.
1
1.
Go to biotechnology and read: ‘The many Dimensions of Plant Tissue Culture Research’ from the
first website listed above.
2.
For more on the process of micropropagation, to help you with your answers log on to
www.accessexcellence.org/LC/ST/st2bgplant.html
3.
Read Section 7.4 in the text book as a revision
4.
Answer all the questions below
5.
For those of you who wish to experience first hand, ‘tissue culture’, this website will give you very
good and detailed methods:
http://www.une.edu.au/~agronomy/AgSSrHortTCinfo.html
Analysis Questions
1.
In your own words, describe the term micropropagation as one process widely used in ‘tissue
culture’ today.
2.
Outline the Method used in micropropagation.
3.
Draw Fig 3 (from article in Method 1. above) and write a caption for each step in the flow chart.
4.
Describe two other types of tissue culture, including briefly, the methods used.
5.
List and describe briefly as many currently researched areas where attempts are being made to
produce resistance in plants.
6.
Summarise ‘somatic hybridization’ using diagrams and outlining the method used.
7.
Evaluate the impact of tissue culture on the horticultural industry.
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