Question

In what ways do plants ordinarily reproduce asexually? What is the importance of totipotency in regard to tissue culture?

Answer 1

Hint:-Asexual reproduction is that reproduction in which genetically identical offsprings are produced from a single parent i.e., the fusion of male and female gametes is not required to produce the offspring. Totipotency word has been derived from two Latin words i.e., totus which means ‘entire’ and potentia which means ‘power or capacity’.

Complete step-by-step solution:-
Plants ordinarily reproduce asexually by vegetative propagation methods. Vegetative propagation involves the development of new offspring from a fragment of a plant part or any vegetative propagule (rhizome, tubers, etc). Thus, it produces offspring that are genetically identical to the parent plant, hence, called clones.
Tissue culture is one of the artificial vegetative propagation methods in which plant cells or tissue can be kept in an artificial medium (contains nutrients for the proper growth and development of plant cells or tissue) to generate the whole plant under a sterile controlled environment. The plant cells can then divide and produce an undifferentiated mass of cells called a callus. This callus is known to be totipotent because it can divide and differentiate into different parts of the plant to produce a whole plant structure. So, totipotency is very important regarding tissue culture because, if the cells were not totipotent then there will be no generation of a whole plant from a single cell or tissue and thereby, the tissue culture technique would fail.

Note:- Vegetative propagation is the asexual method of reproduction in plants in which parts of plants or vegetative propagules are used for the production of progeny that is identical to the parent plant. Totipotency is the term which means the ability of a single cell to divide and differentiate into a complete organism.