An important aspect of all biotechnology processes is the culture of either the plant cells or animal cells or microorganisms. The cells in culture can be used for recombinant DNA technology, genetic manipulations etc.

Plant cell culture is based on the unique property of the cell-totipotency. CELL-TOTIPOTENCY is the ability of the plant cell to regenerate into whole plant. This property of the plant cells has been exploited to regenerate plant cells under the laboratory conditions using artificial nutrient mediums. With the advances made in genetic engineering, it became possible to introduce foreign genes into cell and tissue culture systems. This led to the development of GENETICALLY MODIFIED (GM) OR TRANSGENIC CROPS which had improved traits and characteristics.

History of cell culture

In the early 19th century, Schleiden and Schwann proposed the concept of the 'cell theory'. In 1902, Gottlieb Haberlandt, the german botanist and regarded as the father of plant tissue culture, first attempted to cultivate the mechanically isolated plant leaf cells on a simple nutrient medium. He did not succeed in achieving the growth and differentiation of the cultured cells, however, he predicted the concept of growth hormones, the use of embryo sac fluids, the cultivation of artificial embryos from somatic cells, etc.
During the period 1902 - 1930, attempts were made to culture the isolated plant organs such as roots and shoot apices (organ culture). Hanning (1904) isolated embryos of some crucifers and successfully grew on mineral salts and sugar solutions. Simon (1908) successfully regenerated a bulky callus, buds, roots from a poplar tree on the surface of medium containing IAA which proliferated cell division. Gautheret, White and Nobecourt (1934-1940) largely contributed to the developments made in plant tissue culture. White (1939) cultured tobacco tumour tissue from the hybrid Nicotiana glauca, and N. Langsdorffii.
The period of 1940 - 1970s saw the development of suitable nutrient media to culture plant tissues, embryos, anthers, pollen, cells and protoplasts, and the regeneration of complete plants (in vitro morphogenesis) from cultured tissues and cells. In 1941, van Overbek and co-workers used coconut milk (embryo sac fluid) for embryo development and callus formation in Datura. Steward and Reinert (1959) first discovered somatic embryo production in vitro. Maheswari and Guha (1964) developed the anther culture for the production of haplid plants. Skoog and Miller (1957) advanced the hypothesis of organogenesis in cultured callus by varying the ratio of auxin and cytokinin in the growth medium. Muir (1953) developed a successful technique for the culture of single isolated cells wich is commonly known as paper-raft nurse technique (placing a single cell on filter paper kept on an actively growing nurse tissue). In 1952, the Pfizer Inc., New York (U.S.A) got the US patent and started producing industrially the secondary metabolites of plants. The first commercial production of a natural product shikonin by cell suspension culture was obtained.
In 1980s using Genetic engineering, for the first time, it was possible to introduce foreign genes into cell and tissue culture systems to develop plants with improved characteristics (transgenic crops) which may contribute to the path towards the second green revolution.