[short_answer] In tissue culture, new plants are regenerated from a few cells taken from the growing tip of a parent plant. Explain why every plant produced by this technique is genetically identical to the parent, and state what property of plant cells makes this technique possible.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · 2026-06-26 01:05 · grounding rag
Model Answer
In tissue culture, cells are taken from the growing tip of a parent plant and grown into new plants. Since this is asexual reproduction, no fertilisation occurs and no new combination of DNA is formed. All new plants are grown from the same DNA as the parent, making them genetically identical.
The property that makes this possible is totipotency — the ability of plant cells to divide and differentiate into a complete organism, since every plant cell contains the full genetic information needed.
Source: Tissue Culture (More to Know), Chapter 7; Section 7.2.5 Vegetative Propagation
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Explanation
- Why identical: Tissue culture is asexual — no fusion of gametes, so no genetic variation is introduced. The DNA is copied but remains unchanged.
- Key term: Examiners expect the word totipotency (or at least the idea that each plant cell retains the full genetic blueprint and can develop into a whole plant).
- The passage states cells from the growing tip "divide rapidly" and differentiate — link this directly to the concept of totipotency for full marks.