Pioneers in plant tissue culture -1

1. PIONEERS IN PLANT TISSUE CULTURE
Gottlieb Haberlandt (1901-1968)
PHILIPR.WHITE (1901-1968]
ROGERJ.GAUTHERET (1910-1997)
PIERRENOBÉCOURT (1895-1961)
FOLKESKOOG (1908-2001)
TOSHIOMURASHIGE [Born 1930)
Gottlieb Haberlandt, a German botanist, made the first attempts to culture fully differentiated
single cells isolated from the leaves of Lamiumpurpureum, petioles of Eichhornia crassipes,
glandular hairs of Pulmonaria mollissima, and stamen hairs of Tradescantia in simple nutrient
solution of Knop. The purpose of this experiment was to achieve divisions in these cells and
obtain complete plants from them to verify the concept of cellular totipotency inherent in the
famous Cell Theory put forward by Schleiden (1838) and Schwann (1839). The cultured cells
survived for up to 1 month and also increased in volume but did not divide.
P. Nobecourt a French plant pathologist, announced simultaneously in 1939 with
White and Gautheret, the possibility of cultivating plant tissues for unlimited period.
It was possible with the use of recently discovered indole acetic acid (IAA) by
F. W. Went (1932). This success opened new avenues of cultivating plant cells for
different studies. T
P. R. White, an American scientist who worked at Rockfeller Institute, New Jersey, USA,
was one of the pioneer tissue culturist of early period. In 1934 he reported for the first time
successful continuous cultures of tomato root tips and obtained indefinite growth of roots.
Initially he used salts of Knop’s solution, sucrose and yeast extract in his medium.
Later, yeast extract was replaced by three vitamins, viz. pyrodoxine, thiamine and nicotinic
acid. This synthetic medium has been proved to be one of the basic medium for a
variety of tissue cultures. .
Like many others, Pierre Roger Gautheret was working earlier at the University of Sorbonne,
Paris, France. Gautheret also tried to cultivate isolated cells and root tips without getting
tissue cultures.Preliminary attempts with liquid medium failed completely. Later explants
were placed on the surface of medium solidified with agar. In 1939, Gautheret reported
the propagation of carrot as the first plant tissue culture of unlimited growth using
indoleacetic acid and B vitamins.
Professor Folke Skoog was one of the leading plant physiologists of the world. Skoog was
already renowned for his pioneering work with auxin, a plant growth hormone, when he
joined the University of Wisconsin, Madison, U.S.A. While at Wisconsin, he discovered a
major new class of plant hormones, the cytokinins, which stimulate the division of plant cells,
and regulate plant growth and development. This lead to the isolation of a compound
from autoclaved Herring sperm whale DNA called kinetin (6-furfuryl amino purine). Following
this discovery, several natural and synthetic cytokinins were identified, of which benzylamino
purine (BAP) is most widely used in plant tissue cultures.
In 1962, Murashige and Skoog formulated the now most extensively used plant tissue culture
medium, popularly called MS medium. It contains 25 times higher salt concentration than
the Knop’s medium, particularly in NO3- and NH4 + ions.