Plant tissue culture is the technique of in vitro maintenance and growth of plant cells, tissue, organs etc. and their differentiation on artificial nutrient medium under aseptic condition inside suitable  containers, under controlled environmental conditions.

Totipotency/The basis of plant cell and tissue culture

 Tissue culture technique is based on totipotent nature of plant cell.

Totipotency is a property of normal cells that have the genetic potential to give rise to a complete individual.

• The basis of tissue culture is to grow large number of cells in a sterile controlled environment.
• The cells are obtained from stem, root or other plant parts and are allowed to grow in culture medium containing mineral nutrients, vitamins and hormones to encourage cell division and growth.
• As a result, the cells in culture will produce an unorganized proliferative mass of cells which is known as callus tissue.
  
• The cells that comprise the callus mass are totipotent.
  
• Thus, a callus tissue may be in a broader sense totipotent, i.e., it may be able to regenerated back to normal plant given certain manipulations of the medium and the cultural environment.
  
• The hormones in this process play the major role than any other manipulations.