What is plant cell culture?

How does plant cell culture work? 

Plant cell culture has evolved from a cultivation technology into a biological manufacturing platform, capable of producing bespoke speciality ingredients on demand.  

Traditionally, growing a plant to harvest molecules of interest has meant that most of the plant goes to waste. You may only be growing roses to extract the rose oil, for example.  

Using plant cell culture allows us to sustainably produce valuable natural molecules without cultivating the whole plant. 

The protocolused to do this shares some similarities with techniques people use in their gardens. Skilled gardeners can take a cutting or a leaf and grow another plant. This technologyl is possible because a single plant cell contains the genetic blueprint required to rebuild a whole, mature plant from scratch.

Similarly, our scientists can take a leaf cutting and expose it to a precise balance of plant hormones under laboratory conditions. This returns specialised cells back into juvenile, dedifferentiated cells, which grow rapidly and can be manipulated to produce molecules of interest. 

This process doesn't require genetic modification; our scientists are not playing with DNA or the plant’s genome. Instead, they use environmental impact, such as temperature or carbon dioxide levels, to influence how the cell behaves and what molecules it produces. This is called: elicitation. 

Once it becomes that cell, we can grow it multiple times within a special reactor and produce as much of the molecule of interest as we want in a lab.  

If we want 100 grams, we can only produce 100 grams. If we want 1000 grams, we produce 1000 grams, so there’s no waste.  

You can make it as pure as you want and improve its efficacy, too.