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What is Plant Tissue Culture lab and a Tissue Culture Laboratory?

1. What is plant tissue culture?

Plant tissue culture is a technique in which excised plant organs, tissues, cells, or protoplasts are cultivated under sterile and artificially controlled environmental conditions using appropriate culture media, allowing them to regenerate cells, tissues, or complete plants. The basis of plant tissue culture is the 'totipotency' of plant cells, meaning that each cell possesses the ability to replicate like Sun Wukong's clones.

Plant tissue culture provides an efficient, convenient, and controllable method for plant production and research. With continuous technological development, it has been widely applied in the conservation of germplasm resources, plant breeding, production of plant secondary metabolites, and plant genetic engineering, achieving remarkable and substantial results.

Through plant tissue culture, a single plant can be propagated into thousands or even tens of thousands of tissue-cultured seedlings. It enables the mass production of clones, preserves superior traits, shortens production cycles, and provides abundant material security for our lives. It has now become the most active and widely applied technology in modern biotechnology.

2. What is a tissue culture laboratory?

A plant tissue culture laboratory is a specialized facility for conducting plant tissue culture experiments. Through plant tissue culture techniques, it is possible to artificially control environmental conditions in the laboratory, simulating the growth processes of plants in nature, thereby achieving goals such as rapid propagation, variety improvement, and genetic transformation.

Plant tissue culture is carried out under strictly sterile conditions, so it requires equipment such as a Clean Bench, electronic analytical balance, precision pipette, autoclave, stereomicroscope, light-incubation chamber, biochemical incubator, air conditioner, and refrigerator.

How to Properly Choose a Clean Bench? 

How to Properly Choose a Clean Bench?

A Clean Bench is a purification device that provides a locally high-cleanliness working environment with strong versatility. Selecting a good Clean Bench is the first step to ensure sterile operations. It not only provides a sterile environment for laboratory personnel but also effectively prevents cross-contamination, allowing instruments to better serve as facilitators for experiments.

Clean Benches can be divided Horizontal Flow and Vertical Flow types based on airflow patterns. Horizontal laminar flow clean bench offer an open operation space, while vertica flow workbenches typically come with movable glass front windows. Users can choose according to their needs.

High-quality materials and scientific design are the first steps toward sterile culture. Clean Benches should use high-quality steel plates with electrostatic powder coating, and the work surface should be made entirely of stainless steel 304. The work area should be equipped with LED lighting and a UV sterilization system, built-in backup waterproof sockets, and optional glass side windows for easy observation. Options are available for single or dual-person operation.

Creating a high-cleanliness working environment and a Class 100 clean space is the core function of a Clean Bench as a key device for sterile operations. It should include a built-in adjustable air volume fan system, horizontal or vertical uniform airflow, and a high-efficiency filter made of ultra-fine glass fiber paper, achieving a filtration efficiency of ≥99.99% (@0.3μm).

High safety performance standards are an important guarantee for sterile culture. The workbench should include built-in mechanical protection devices, interlocks for lighting and sterilization systems, and the sterilization system can only be activated when the sliding door is fully closed. When the UV lamp is on, opening the movable front window will automatically turn off the UV lamp. Optional delayed switches and programmed timing functions for the sterilization system improve efficiency while ensuring user safety.

A user-friendly interface is the choice for digital upgrades and better empowers sterile operations. The standard controller comes with an embedded LCD display that can show the device's operating status in real time, such as wind speed, lighting, sterilization, and filter lifespan, and provides multiple audible and visual alarm functions for various faults.