Question

You have been employed by a wholesale nursery to set up a new plant tissue culture facility to propagate selected desirable cultivars of ornamental orchids. The nursery has allocated a maximum of $AUD10,000 for you to purchase the necessary materials, and has requested that you prepare a report to the manager for consideration.  

1. What are the materials needed to set up the facility? (E.g. large equipment, small equipment (glassware etc), consumables (hormones, medium etc) etc)

Answer 1

Tissue cultivation is the invitro cultivation of tissue or plant cell, in a liquid or semisolid well defined nutrient medium under controlled environmental conditions for the production of primary and secondary metabolites or to regenerate plant. This cannot be performed in normal environmental conditions. Many equipments are needed for the better result of tissue culture. It needs the assistance of large equipments,small equipments and consumables.

Large equipments needed:

Sl.no	Equipment	Function
1	Laminar air flow	It provides a clean working area, from dust and microorganism contaminating the culture.
2	Glovebox	It can be used as an alternative for laminar air flow.
3	Autoclave	This is used to sterilize utensils and other objects used for tissue culture.
4	Microwave	This is used to sterilize small utenzils and the media.

5

Refrigerator

To store media.

Small equipments needed:

Sl.no	Equipment	Function
1	Cooking utensils	A pot with a lid to heat the media and a plastic ladle for stirring and dispensing.
2	pH meter	It is used to test the pH of the solution.
3	Glass vessels like baby food jars and Magneta B caps.	Used to hold media and prevent contamination.
4	Test tubes	They are used for holding the media and transferring.
5	Bandages	For covering the lids of vessels.
6	Aluminium foil and rubber band	To cover the glass vessels.
7	Antibacterial soap	To wash hands and to sterile.
8	Nitrile gloves	To protect the hands.
9	Goggles	To protect eyes.
10	Masks	To restrict the breathing of contaminants.
11	Lab suits	To protect clothes.
12	Measuring equipments	Scales,pippets,spoons and cups are used for the proper measuring of constituents.
13	Forceps	To grasp and move explants
14	Tweezers	For fine work with explants

Consumables:

Sl.no	Consumables	Function
1	Plant growth regulators(PGRs)	These are hormone like chemicala used as the growth regulators of explants.
2	Benzylaminopurine(BAP)	It is a widely used cytokinin suppliment for the plant growth.
3	Indole 3-butyric acid(IBM)	Plant hormone for plant rooting.
4	1-Naphthaleneacetic acid(NAA)	Plant hormone used as rooting agent.
5	Kinetin	Used to introduce cell division.
6	Isopentenyl adenine(2ip)	Plant regeneration
7	Plant preservative mixture(PPM)	Prevents microbial contamination.
8	Agar powder	Solidifying media
9	Inositol	Production of plant cell and plant growth.
10	Thiamine	It is acofactor in aminoacid synthesis and helps in plant growth.
11	Vitamin C	Antioxidant

12	Baking soda	For lowering the pH
13	White vinegar	For increasing pH
14	Murashige and Skoog Media	Supply of micronutrients and vitamins.