8 Oct 2020

Tissue Culture Propagation of Monstera deliciosa

Anjali Singh, MS

As a content and community manager, I leverage my expertise in plant biotechnology, passion for tissue culture, and writing skills to create compelling articles, simplifying intricate scientific concepts, and address your inquiries. As a dedicated science communicator, I strive to spark curiosity and foster a love for science in my audience.

Table of Contents

Description of the Plant

The Monstera genus consists of 22 species and are mainly grown for their ornamental leaves. These plants resemble the Philodendrons species. In this article, we will provide a brief description of the species Monstera deliciosa and how it is propagated using tissue culture methods.

Monstera deliciosa is also known as a Swiss cheese plant because of the holes in its leaves. The word “Monstera” in the name refers to the large size of the plant, which can grow up to 30 ft., and “deliciosa” refers to the edible fruits of the plant.

Distribution and habitat: It is native to the tropical forests of Central America and southern Mexico. It’s also been introduced to some other tropical areas and is famous for being an invasive plant in places like Hawaii, Seychelles, Ascension Island, and the Society Islands.

Leaves and roots: It’s a vine plant that climbs up trunks with the help of its thick aerial roots, and completely covers the tree it climbs with its wide leaves. The aerial roots not only help the plants in climbing, but they also help in obtaining water and nutrients.

Monstera deliciosa belongs to the family Araceae and is a popular house plant. It has aerial roots that can grow up to 20 meters. The leaves of the plants are large, leathery, glossy, heart-shaped, and 25 to 90 cm long by 25 to 75 cm broad.

The inflorescence of the plant is half oval white spathe (a large sheathing bract enclosing the flower cluster of plants) with long spadix (spike inflorescence with small flowers present on a fleshy stem) in the middle. At maturation stage, the spadix develops into white edible fruit.

Figure: A pictorial presentation of the different parts of Monstera deliciosa.

Picture Credit/Source of the image: https://awesomebotany/photos

Classification of the Plant:

Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Alismatales
Family: Araceae
Genus: Monstera
Species: M. deliciosa

In-vitro propagation of Monstera deliciosa

Tissue culture is an efficient and popular method for mass propagation of plants that hold industrial or commercial value, and the plant Monstera deliciosa is grown for the cut foliage of the plant.

The video (above) shows the process of culturing Monstera deliciosa in labs. The steps followed are discussed in the section below.

Material Required

Younger shoots of Monsters deliciosa, sterile knife, small brush, magnetic stirrer, dish soap, 1% bleach, surfactant, tween 20, 3% hydrogen peroxide, cleaning vinegar, acetic acid, sterile forceps, media containing culture bottles, parafilm, and labels.

Procedure

Take the younger shoots of the plant and carefully remove soil to expose roots and rhizome.
Cut the plants to a smaller size using a sterile knife or pruners.
Place the cut explant under the running tap water to remove as much dirt as possible from the explant.
Take a small brush and clean the roots.
Mix dish soap in the tap water and put the explant in the prepared soap solution for up to one hour. Use a magnetic stirrer to thoroughly clean the explant.
After an hour, remove the explant and trim all the leaves attached to it.
Take a beaker or container and add 3 ml bleach to 300 ml distilled water (you need to prepare a 1 % solution). Then add surfactant and a few drops of tween 20. Your sterilizing solution is ready!
Now put the explants in the sterilizing solution for an hour without disturbing.
After one hour, rinse the explant with 3% hydrogen peroxide for five minutes.
At the last minute, add a 2% volume of cleaning vinegar to 3% hydrogen peroxide. (In the video, 3 ml of vinegar is added to 150 ml of hydrogen peroxide). Hydrogen peroxide and acetic acid make a very strong oxidizer and a very effective sterilizing solution.
Using sterile forceps, remove the dead tissue around the roots (if any).
Then, place the explant on the culture media ensuring firm contact of the explant with the media.
Seal the culture bottles containing explants using parafilm or saran wrap and label the container with the name of the plant and date of culture.
Keep observing your cultures and, after two weeks, if you see depletion of the media, you can subculture the plantlets and transfer them to fresh media.
After a few more weeks, with proper care, the cultures will be ready to transfer to soil in a small pot and then to a bigger pot.

At Plant Cell Technology, we are committed to helping our customers with their culturing processes as much as possible. This video was an initiative to educate our customers on the process of culturing Monstera deliciosa using tissue culture techniques.

PCT (Plant Cell Technology) has tissue culture labs where we test the efficiency of products and design the protocols for culturing different plants in a laboratory environment.

Along with providing tissue culture services and equipment, PCT is also taking steps toward creating informative videos to help and educate its customers. So, don’t forget to check out our Plant Cell Technology website for more “how-to” videos.

Also, make sure to check out our other videos on our Youtube channel “PlantCellTechnology”, and don’t forget to subscribe to the channel so you don't miss any future videos from PCT. Do share your views on the video and content with anjali@plantcelltechnology.com. And if there is any specific tissue culture topic/subject you want us to make a video about, let us know at the given email. We will do our best to bring you what you want!