Plant tissue culture or cloning involves the growth of isolated cells and tissues on an artificial medium under sterile conditions. Year 9 have been learning about stem cells and cloning. They have been really excited to carry out some cauliflower cloning in the lab. The success of our cloning experiment depends very much on the maintenance of sterile conditions.
Pupils used an aseptic technique, making sure the benches were swabbed with disinfectant and passing their forceps and scalpels through ethanol and a flame to kill any unwanted microorganisms that would contaminate their plant cultures. All containers were sterile and they used sterile loops to manipulate their tiny explants onto their vials of medium.
Year 9 are looking forward to keeping a close eye on these tiny cauliflower plants over the coming 10 weeks.
