TOTIPOTENCY

• The ability of a single plant cell to give rise

to a whole plant, including metabolism, in a
suitable given stimulus.
This property is unique to plants.
 PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF TOTIPOTENCY
• Stem, leaf or any other explant can be used
for propagation of horticultural crops.
• Germplasm preservation of endangered
plant species.
• Haploid plant production.
• Propagation of hybrid crops where seed
setting is not possible.
• Introduction of cellular organelles from
different sources.
 Plasticity
• Processes involved in plant growth and
development adapt to environmental conditions.
This plasticity allows plants to alter their
metabolism, growth and development to best suit
their environment. Particularly important aspects
of this adaptation, as far as plant tissue culture
and regeneration are concerned, are the abilities
to initiate cell division from almost any tissue of
the plant and to regenerate lost organs or undergo
different developmental pathways in response to
particular stimuli.
• When plant cells and tissues are
cultured in vitro they generally exhibit a
very high degree of plasticity, which
allows one type of tissue or organ to be
initiated from another type. In this way,
whole plants can be subsequently
regenerated.
 SOMATIC EMBRYOGENESIS
• Process of embryo formation from somatic
plant tissue is called somatic
embryogenesis.
• Direct embryogenesis (without callus)
• Indirect embryogenesis (callus)
 FACTORS AFFECTIN SOMATIC EMBRYOGENESIS
A. Chemical: Nutrients (macro & micro)
Plant growth regulators.
B. Physical: Oxygen, temperature, light etc.
C. Genotype
D. Age of explant
E. Explant Source
 APPLICATIONS OF SOMATIC EMBRYOGENESIS
• Propagation: the rate of propagation is much
greater than in macropropagation (1 ml of settled
cell volume can yield 100- 3000000 embryos)
• Artificial seeds
• Genetic transformation: Homogeneous embryogenic
cell suspension cultures are used for transformation
because most of the cells are totipotent and regeneration
proceeds through somatic embryogenesis. As such low
risk of chimerism was expected during the selection of
transgenic plants. The main bottleneck was the difficult
and time consuming initiation process and the
maintenance of embryogenic cell suspensions.
STAGES OF EMBRYOGENESIS
 ORGANOGENESIS
• Formation of differentiated tissues from
undifferentiated one is called
organogenesis. (plasticity)
 STEPS IN ORGANOGENESIS
• Studies have shown that induction of shoots or
roots from explants could be divided into three
stages. In the first stage, the cells acquire
competence for subsequent cell proliferation and
differentiation; during the second stage, the
developmental fate of competent cells is
determined; and the third stage is devoted for
differentiation and development of determined
organs. However, the molecular mechanism(s) that
govern the developmental fate of cells during
organogenesis, remains poorly understood.
 FACTORS AFFECTING ORGANOGENESIS
• Explant: 1. Size (smaller size will have
homogeneous tissues while larger size will have
heterogeneous tissues)
• 2. Age.
• Phytohormones: Organogenesis occurs in various
plant tissue cultures in response to exogenously
added phytohormones, mainly auxin and
cytokinin. High auxin/cytokinin ratios in the
medium usually induce root formation whereas
low auxin/ cytokinin ratios promote shoot
formation. On the other hand, media containing
intermediate auxin/cytokinin ratios promote
disorganized cellular proliferation and callus
formation.
–
• Ph: 5.6 – 5.8
• Temperature: Tropical species need
higher temperature while temperate crops
need lower temperatures for
organogenesis.
• Light: It varies from crop to crop and
organ to organ but in general blue
spectrum promotes shoot formation and
red light induces rooting.
 IMPOTANCE OF ORGANOGENESIS
• Regeneration of fertile plants from callus.
• Mutational breeding of sexually and
asexually reproduced plants was achieved
through cell culture.
• Fertile plants can be regenerated from
hybrid callus culture.
• Plants having variation in chromosome
number (triploids, tetraploids) are
regenerated.
 CYTODIFFERENTIATION
• Differentiation of cells into specific organs,
generally connecting tissues is called
cytodifferentiation.
• IMPORTANCE: Grafting process of
immature plants.
• Hybridization manipulation can create more
desirable vegetatively propagated plants.
•