Biology Multiple Choice Questions on “Plant Tissue Culture”.
1. What is plant tissue culture?
a) The technique of in vitro maintaining and growing cells
b) The technique of in vivo growing cells
c) The technique of growing plants in gardens
d) The technique of cutting plants
Answer: a
Clarification: Plant tissue culture is the technique of in vitro maintain and growing cells, tissues, organs, etc.; and their differentiation on artificial medium under aseptic conditions inside suitable containers.
2. Tissue culture technique was first practised by _____________
a) White
b) Haberlandt
c) Halperin
d) Skoog
Answer: b
Clarification: Tissue culture technique was first practised by Haberlandt and Hanning in 1902. Harrison developed this technique. The first successful attempt was made by White in case of Tomato root.
3. Which of the following scientist was not responsible for developing somatic hybrids?
a) Steward
b) Halperin
c) Wetherell
d) Skoog
Answer: d
Clarification: Formation of embryoids or somatic embryos was discovered by Steward, Halperin and Wetherell by using young anthers of Datura. Skoog and Miller found that growth and morphogenesis were controlled by hormones such as auxin and cytokinin.
4. What is an explant?
a) A part of plant grown under soil
b) Any part of a plant taken out and grown in a test tube
c) A specific part of a plant grown in a test tube
d) Leaves grew under test tube
Answer: b
Clarification: It was learnt by scientists, during the 1950s, that whole plants could be regenerated from explants, i.e., any part of the plant taken out and grown in a test tube, under sterile conditions in a special nutrient medium.
5. The capacity to generate a whole new plant from any cell is known as micropropagation.
a) False
b) True
Answer: a
Clarification: The capacity to generate a whole new plant from any cell is known as totipotency. The method of producing thousands of plants through tissue culture is called micropropagation.
6. Essential requirement of an artificial medium in which explant is being regenerated is __________
a) the medium should have a sulphur source
b) the medium should have very low carbon concentration
c) the medium must provide a carbon source
d) the medium must provide a nitrogen donor
Answer: c
Clarification: Essential requirement of an artificial medium in which explant is being regenerated is that the medium must provide a carbon source such as sucrose and also inorganic salts, vitamins, amino acids and growth regulators like auxins, cytokinins, etc.
7. What are somaclones?
a) Plants chemically identical to the original plant
b) Plants morphologically identical to the original plant
c) Plants anatomically identical to the original plant
d) Plants genetically identical to the original plant
Answer: d
Clarification: Plants produced through tissue culture will be genetically identical to the original plant from which they were grown, i.e., they are somaclones. Many important food plants like tomato, banana and apple, etc., have been produced on a commercial scale using this method.
8. Which of the following plant part is free from the attack of the virus?
a) Stem
b) Root
c) Meristem
d) Leaves
Answer: c
Clarification: When the plants are infected with a virus, the meristem (apical and axillary) is free of the virus because the cell division of meristem is faster than the rate of virus replication and multiplication.
9. Which of the following plant’s meristem has not been successfully cultured?
a) Banana
b) Apple
c) Sugarcane
d) Potato
Answer: b
Clarification: Culturing of meristems is an important method of the recovery of healthy plants from diseased plants. Hence, one can remove the meristem and grow it in vitro to obtain virus-free plants. Scientists have succeeded in culturing meristems of banana, sugarcane and potato.
10. What is protoplast?
a) Cell wall + Plasma membrane
b) Plant cell – cell wall
c) Cytoplasm + cell wall
d) Plasma membrane – cytoplasm
Answer: b
Clarification: Protoplast is a plant cell without a cell wall. Scientists have been able to isolate single cells from plants and after digesting their cell walls have been able to isolate naked protoplasts (surrounded by plasma membranes).
11. Pomato is a somatic hybrid.
a) True
b) False
Answer: a
Clarification: Protoplast of tomato is fused with a protoplast of potato, and then is grown to form new hybrid plants which have combined properties of tomato and potato. This results in the formation of Pomato which is a somatic hybrid of tomato and potato.
12. What are somatic hybrids?
a) Hybrid protoplasts
b) Protoplasts
c) Fused plasmids
d) Fused Chloroplast
Answer: a
Clarification: Isolated protoplasts from two different varieties of plants-each having a desirable character-can be fused to get hybrid protoplasts, which can be further grown to form a new plant. These hybrids are called somatic hybrids while the process is called somatic hybridisation.
13. Which of the following is not related to embryo culture?
a) Growth of embryos on culture medium
b) Developing seedlings
c) Multiplication of rare plants
d) Making virus-free plants
Answer: d
Clarification: Embryo culture is the technique of taking out young/fragile/dormant embryos from developing seeds and their growth on a culture medium to form seedlings and then young plants. This technique is useful in the multiplication of some rare plants, e.g., Makapuno Nut.
14. Which of the following is not an application of tissue culture?
a) Rapid Clonal Propagation
b) Somaclonal Variations
c) Embryo rescue
d) Transgenic plants
Answer: c
Clarification: The applications of tissue culture include Rapid clonal propagation, Somaclonal variations, Transgenic plants, Induction and selection of mutations, resistance to weedicides and tolerance to stress like pollutants, toxins, salts, drought, floods etc.