Meristem Culture

Meristem culture is the in vitro culture of a plant's own meristematic tissue - most often the shoot-tip apical meristem, the small dome of continuously dividing cells at a shoot's growing point. Figure 5.7 shows the technique applied to a carnation cutting: the older, larger leaves are first removed from the cutting, giving a magnified view of the shoot tip once its enclosing leaves are stripped away; this excised shoot tip is then cultured (commonly on a paper wick set in nutrient medium), develops callus, and is carried through to plantlets. Meristem culture is singled out among the four types because the apical meristem is characteristically free of the viruses that may have infected the rest of an otherwi …