Question

Meristem culture is used
A. To produce disease free plants
B. In germplasm conservation
C. In rapid clonal multiplication
D. All of these

Answer 1

Hint: Meristem is a part of a plant which has the ability to divide continuously throughout the lifetime.

Complete Answer:
Meristem:
- It is composed of a kind of cell called meristematic cells.
- Meristematic cells are oval, polygonal, rectangular in shape.
- There is no intercellular space present between the cells in meristems.

Meristem Culture: Meristem culture technique was developed by the scientists Morel and Martin in 1952.
- Meristem culture is a type of tissue culture.
- In this type of culture we use the tissue of apical meristem with the help of which clones of a plant can be developed by vegetative propagation.

Steps involved in meristem culture :
- Initiation of culture
- Multiplication of culture
- Rooting of a developed shoot
- Transfer of plantlets to the pots.

Uses of meristem culture:
- There are many uses of meristem culture. Some of them are-
- In meristem culture, disease free ( virus free) plants can grow.
- The germplasm (or the seed) can be conserved in-vitro.
- It is also useful in the technique called as micropropagation ( involves asexual or vegetative production of plant).
- It is rapid clonal multiplication because meristems contain high auxin ( plant hormones that regulates the growth of a plant) concentration.
So, from the above discussion it is clear that Meristem culture is used in all the situations given in the option. So the right answer will be all of these.

Hence option D will be the correct answer.

Note: Point to be noted that meristems never lose their capability of growing. There are three types of meristems present which induces the growth of different parts of plant-
- Apical meristem
- Intercalary meristem
- Lateral Meristem