Comment by hackingonempty
Comment by hackingonempty 20 hours ago
Tissue culture is a thing in the Cannabis world for efficiently reproducing and storing different varieties. I think it can also be used to create non-infected plants from plants infected with hop latent viroid.
I think the main issue is maintaining sterile conditions but its doable.
That's right, it's very doable.
The technique for creating clean plants from infected plants is really cool and remarkably simple. You typically take tissue from the part of the plant called the meristem, where cells are actively dividing and less likely to be infected, then rapidly disinfect and transfer the tissue to a sterile culture.
It seems like it should be such a sophisticated and complex process, but all you're doing is cutting a chunk of fresh cells out and popping it into some goo where it can continue to grow.
Extracting meristem tissue is usually the only difficult part. They can be extremely tiny. It takes a sharp eye and very steady hands. I've only done it for practice, never out of necessity. I'm pretty bad at it.
It seems kind of like magic if you ignore the biologal machinery. It makes perfect sense why it works, yet it's also absolutely crazy that it does.