Micropropagation and germoplasm preservation laboratory

Research Group for Micropropagation and Germplasm Preservation – GERMOBIOTECH

A new research direction, started in the last century in vegetal and animal biology is that of cultivating cells, tissues or protoplasts on artificial media. This technique became an important research domain in cultivating various living organisms.

Cell culture is the process by which prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells are grown under controlled conditions. In practice the term "cell culture" refers to the culturing of cells derived from multicellular eukaryotes.

Tissue culture is the growth of tissues and/or cells separate from the organism. This is typically facilitated via use of a liquid, semi-solid, or solid growth media. The more specific term plant tissue culture is used for plants.

Organ culture is a development from tissue culture methods of research; in this case, the organ culture is able to accurately model functions of an organ in various states and conditions by the use of the actual in vitro organ itself.

Parts of an organ or a whole organ can be cultured in artificial conditions, the so called in vitro techniques. The main objective is to maintain the structure of the tissue and direct it towards normal development. It is very important that the tissue is not damaged. This technique supposes careful handling of the vegetal material and of all the instruments used.

In our Micropropagation and Germoplasm Preservation Laboratory of “Anastasie Fatu” Botanical Garden, some rare and damaged plant species will be multiplicated, as well as some varieties of the plants existing in our collections on one hand and a seed collection preserved on short and long term, on the other hand.

Micropropagation and Germoplasm Preservation Laboratory is tooled with: aspirant fume hood, cabinet with horizontal laminar flow, bactericide lamp, KBW 400 plant growth chamber, Velp hot plate magnetic stirrer, Raypa magnetic stirrer for small volumes, Adam analytical balance, vessel washing machine, AES 75 autoclave, laboratory refractometer, stereomicroscopes with digital photo camera, Labconco clear Drying Chamber with valves.