This document discusses techniques for cloning plants, including finding genes for desired traits like disease resistance, using genetic engineering to insert those genes into plant cells, and growing clones of plants in laboratories. The key steps are identifying the desired genes, using tools like bacteria to insert those genes into plant cells, and growing the genetically engineered plant clones in sterile conditions on nutrient media to produce new plants with the targeted traits.

1. Techniques for Cloning
Plants
Asexual Reproduction and
Transgenic Plant Culture

2. Finding the right genes
• Just like for animals and humans,
once we find an individual plant
with a desired trait, we can try to
find the gene for that trait using
gel electrophoresis and PCR.
• Examples of naturally occurring
traits scientists might like to use
include: genes for disease
resistance and drought
resistance.

3. Disease Resistance
Susceptible tree
Resistant Tree
American Chestnut Restoration Project; US Forest Service;
University of Tennessee; http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/chestnut/history.php;
Last edited 4-30-2010; Accessed 1-03-2014.

4. Drought Resistance
Drought resistant
Drought susceptible
Batra, Karen; “Biotech Corn Stands Tall;” BiotechNOW;
http://www.biotech-now.org/food-andagriculture/2012/08/biotechs-drought-tolerant-corn-standstall?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campa
ign=0808; 8-02-2012; Accessed 1-3-2014

5. Traits
• Once the traits have been isolated, scientists
want to grow plants that have both the
desired trait and all of the other good traits
their strain has. For example – you wouldn’t
want resistant corn or chestnuts that tasted
bad.
• Traditional breeding, where each offspring
has a mother and father, can bring in bad
traits with the good ones.
• However, we can use biotech tools to see
which organisms have the genes and which
do not – we don’t have to wait for them to
grow up.

6. Genetic engineering
• As with animals, we can use
vectors to put the desired
gene, with a marker, into plant
cells.
• A vector that is often used by
genetic engineers working with
plants is a bacterium called
agrobacterium.
• Natural agrobacterium already
would work by injecting DNA into
plant cells.

7. Cloning
• Unlike with animals, plants respond very
naturally to being cloned. Plant clones occur
in nature when a stem or leaf are buried in
soil, they can develop roots from the stem of
leaf and grow a new plant. Almost all plant
cells can act as stem cells and produce other
plant tissues.
• This is called vegetative propagation and has
been used by farmers and gardeners for
centuries.
• The new plant is genetically identical to the
parent plant.

8. Vegetative Propagation
Meritnation;
http://www.meritnation.com
/ask-answer/question/whatis-vegitativepropagation/science/17591
72; edited 10-2012;
Accessed 1-3-2014.

9. In the lab:
• Samples are often grown on a nutrient
medium, similar to the agar used to
grow bacteria.
• The nutrient is different that bacterial
media – it provides the plant
minerals, nutrients and hormones that
will help young plant clones grow.
• Hormones like auxins and cytokinins
help the plant cells grow into young
“plantlets” or baby plants.

10. Agrobacterium
iGEM 2010; Team Nevada/Agrobacterium Transformations;
http://2010.igem.org/wiki/images/d/d0/Agro_theory.png; Accessed
1-3-2014.

11. In the lab:
• Like when bacterial cultures were
grown – it is important to use sterile
technique to prevent unwanted
funguses or other cells from growing.
• Use sterilized tools, surfaces, media
and clean plant samples.
• As with bacteria, you can use flame or
steam sterilization for tools and use
70% alcohol or 10% bleach for
surfaces.
• Avoid touching any samples or tools to
anything that is not sterile – this
includes you.

12. Plant tissue culture:
Biotech Hobbyist Magazine;
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/xdesign/biotechhobbyist/
tree_cloning.html; Accessed 1-3-2014.