Why tissue culture?
Why cars over horses? Machines over manpower? Or emails over snail mail? Through the centuries, man has endeavoured to improvise on everything from travel, food, communication and agriculture in trying to suit the ever changing pace of his life and demands of his environment. And in this era of exciting technological breakthroughs, the need for ways to conserve time, energy and resources is greater than ever. A need that the tissue culture technique meets in the live resources sector to perfection.
Tissue culture involves the mass production of true-to-type plants from correctly identified, high quality ‘mother’ plants, under sterile conditions. These plants (or plantlets, as they are called in the laboratory) are grown in a highly controlled environment to give fully rooted miniature plants that can be exported at this ex-agar stage (as they have had no prior contact with soil), or transferred into a greenhouse and hardened off, i.e. acclimatized to growing in the soil under natural conditions. As these plants are grown exponentially under near-ideal conditions, they have excellent vigour, are disease free and hardy, and can be obtained in large numbers and uniform sizes in a short period of time as compared to conventional techniques.
Plant Biotech, is a modern facility, committed to producing tissue culture plants while diligently maintaining the integrity of the original genetic material. In other words, we are not involved in genetic engineering or modification of any kind, and is dedicated to propagating plants that are difficult to propagate by conventional techniques, or take a very long time to germinate in the natural environment. We are also involved in introducing selected exotic plants/hybrids from renowned growers/breeders into tissue. Some of these are world class hybrids involving an exclusive buy back arrangement with the owners of the hybrid line.
In a world that is now trying to combat deforestation, global warming and extinction of endangered natural species, tissue culture could just be the answer in quickly replenishing, at least in part, what would take many, many years to regenerate.
How does this affect you?
In a big way, if your prized plant variety is difficult to procure or propagate by conventional methods, or takes ages to germinate under natural circumstances. You may have an exotic hybrid that may not produce a hybrid pup or offshoot. Or even if you have good quality plants that you want to regenerate in large quantities, in a short period of time. Bring them to us, and we will endeavour to put them into tissue for you.
Tissue culture laboratories usually charge a fee for introducing unique plants into tissue, due to the high costs associated. We will work out the best arrangement that will suit your requirements, which means you may not be required to pay a full fee for introducing your selected varieties into tissue. Under certain circumstances, where an exclusive agreement has been established, the fee can be waived fully. The more plants you introduce the better it gets. We maintain and respect the ownership of the plant material to its breeder/grower/owner. We will also ensure you are kept up to date with developments so that you are fully informed throughout the entire process.
Plant Biotech is a medium size operation, flexible enough to create a plan that will suit your requirements.
Tissue Culture Facilities:
A tissue culture laboratory, like a research laboratory, has to adhere to strict standards of cleanliness and good laboratory practices. Our state of the art laboratory on the Sunshine Coast has been accredited by AQIS (Australian Quarantine Inspection Service) as Quarantine Approved Premises for export of tissue culture plants.
Carefully selected plants are put into tissue inside the laboratory. The resulting plantlets are then transferred into our modern greenhouses for further hardening, and remain there until they are ready for sale.
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