Question

What is an explant culture?

Answer 1

Tissue culture is the technique of growing plant cells, tissue or any organ on the artificial medium the appropriate condition under controlled environment and the part which is cultured is called explant.

Complete answer:
The capacity to generate the whole body from one cell is called totipotency.
Haberlandt is known as the father of plant tissue culture.
Explant culture is nothing but growing a piece of tissue in the laboratory that is in the artificial medium is called explant culture.
Hormones used in this culture is:

1. auxin: it includes Indole-3-acetic acid , Indole-3-butyric acid, Naphthalene acetic acid. It initiates the root initiation.
2. Cytokinins help in the initiation of shoot formation.
   Plants produced from explant culture are exact copies of their parents and hence they are called somaclones.
   One of the significant benefits of explant culture is that we can produce virus free plants and this is achieved by the meristematic cell.
   Meristematic cell is that cell which is continuously in division and they are generally virus free even if the whole plant is infected with a virus. So to produce virus free plants we take a part of tissue from the meristematic cell and grow in the culture medium , due to its totipotent nature it develops into a whole plant which is exactly like it (that means free from the virus).

Note:
Somatic hybrid: scientists dissolved the cell wall of the somatic cell and fused the two protoplasts (plant cell without cell wall ) and the product formed is called somatic hybrid. And the process is called somatic hybridisation.
Example: Pomato has been developed by this technique.