Tissue culture and solutions for farming

Growers can clone plants by tissue culture. Farmers also use fertilisers, biological control and GM crops to grow enough food, and each has pros and cons.

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Plant tissue culture

1. Take small pieces of tissue (often from the meristem, at a shoot tip) from a parent plant.
2. Put them on sterile agar containing nutrients and plant hormones.
3. The cells divide by mitosis and grow into many tiny plants (plantlets), which are then planted out.
All the plants are clones (genetically identical).
Uses: making lots of plants quickly, copying plants with useful features, saving rare plants.
Everything must be sterile so microorganisms do not grow on the agar.

GM crops: pros and cons

Advantages: crops can be made resistant to insect pests (fewer pesticides needed), resistant to herbicides (weedkillers), or given extra nutrients (for example rice that makes beta-carotene, which the body uses to make vitamin A).
Disadvantages: genes could spread to wild plants; insects could become resistant; long-term effects are not fully known; seeds can be expensive; some people have ethical objections.

Fertilisers and biological control

Fertilisers add minerals such as nitrates, so crops grow bigger. But they cost money, and run-off into rivers can cause eutrophication.
Biological control uses a natural predator, parasite or disease to control a pest, for example ladybirds to eat aphids. It avoids chemical pesticides and can last a long time. But the control species may become a pest itself: cane toads were taken to Australia in 1935 to control beetles and spread widely, harming native wildlife.
Worked example

A grower wants 5000 identical copies of a rare orchid. Explain why tissue culture is a good method.

  1. Small pieces of one plant can produce many plantlets quickly.
  2. They are clones, so all have the same features as the parent.
  3. Only a little tissue is needed, so the rare parent plant survives.

Answer: Tissue culture makes many identical plants quickly from small pieces of one plant, without destroying the rare parent.

Key idea

Tissue culture grows clones from small pieces of plant on sterile agar with hormones. GM crops can resist pests or contain extra nutrients, but genes may spread. Fertilisers raise yields but can cause eutrophication. Biological control avoids chemicals but the control species can become a pest.

Key words
Clone
An organism that is genetically identical to its parent.
Biological control
Using a natural predator, parasite or pathogen of a pest to control it.
Eutrophication
When extra nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates enter water, algae grow quickly and block light, so plants die. Decomposers break them down and use up the oxygen, so fish die.
Meristem
Plant tissue at the tips of roots and shoots containing stem cells that can divide and differentiate.
Mitosis
Cell division that makes two genetically identical diploid cells, for growth, repair and asexual reproduction.

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  1. Why are plants from tissue culture genetically identical?

    1. They are produced by meiosis
    2. They come from two parents
    3. They come from seeds
    4. They are produced by mitosis from one parent
    Show the answer

    Answer: They are produced by mitosis from one parent

    Clones have identical DNA.

  2. What are plant cells grown on in tissue culture?

    1. Water only
    2. Agar containing nutrients and hormones
    3. Sand only
    4. Soil only
    Show the answer

    Answer: Agar containing nutrients and hormones

    Nutrients and hormones help growth.

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Sources and references

Checked by the GCSE-ready editorial team, 17 October 2026. Last updated 2 October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix it.

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