Micropropagation
/ˌmaɪkroʊˌprɑpəˈɡeɪʃən/
Definition
Micropropagation is a plant propagation technique that produces many new plants from a small piece of parent tissue under sterile laboratory conditions. It usually uses tissue culture on a nutrient medium with plant hormones to trigger shoots and roots. Unlike cuttings or seed propagation, micropropagation starts with tiny explants, such as shoot tips or nodes, and is designed to multiply genetically uniform plants quickly.
Practical Relevance
- Rapid multiplication of selected plants: micropropagation can produce many identical plants from a small amount of starting tissue, which helps expand cultivars that are slow to divide, root poorly from cuttings, or produce limited seed.
- Clean stock production: It is widely used to build disease-free planting material, especially when source plants are tested and clean shoot tips are used, because some pathogens are less likely to persist in very small, actively growing tissues.
- Conservation and backup collections: Botanic gardens and nurseries use micropropagation to maintain rare, valuable, or hard-to-source plants in a compact form, reducing pressure on wild collecting and preserving important genetic lines.
- Limits for home growers: Although useful in horticulture, micropropagation needs sterile conditions, precise nutrient media, and careful acclimation, so losses can occur when lab-grown plants are moved to normal humidity and light.
Related Terms
Tissue culture
Tissue culture refers to a plant propagation and research technique in which small pieces of plant tissue, cells, or…
In vitro
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Propagation
Propagation is the process of producing new plants from seeds, spores, or vegetative parts such as stem cuttings…
Vegetative reproduction
Vegetative reproduction refers to a form of asexual plant reproduction in which new plants grow from roots, stems…
Meristem
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