Tissue Culture

The tissue culture process is used by crop genetic engineers because seeds and plants consist of billions of cells. It is not possible to put a new gene into every one of these cells. However, it is possible to put a new gene into one or a few individual tissue culture cells. Through tissue culture the transformed cell can then be regenerated into an entire plant with each cell containing the transgene. The gene has become a permanent part of the transgenic plant's genome and will be passed on to its progeny.