Culture establishment, plant cell

Alternatively to whole plants, plant cell cultures are used to produce bioactive substances for food industry, cosmetics and pharmacy. This mainly concerns secondary metabolites and recombinant proteins (so-called plant made proteins, PMPs). Among the employed culture types (which comprise suspension cultures, root cultures and shoot cultures), plant cell suspensions induced via callus cultures dominate. This fact can be explained by the suspension culture's morphology being less complex than those of root and shoot cultures, which allows easier cell banking and cultivation up to m3-scale. Based on a summary of semi- and commercial plant cell-derived products the preferable culture types and their establishment are described in more detail. Finally, most common indirect and direct methods of gene transformation (Agrobacterium-and virus-mediated transformation, particle bombardment, polyethylene glycol method, electroporation, microinjection) and of cell banking (slow growth storage, cryopreservation) are discussed for highly productive cell lines of plant origin.