What is the difference between a meristem culture and a callus culture?

Differentiated cells are cultured in meristem culture, while undifferentiated cells are cultured in callus culture.

A meristem is made up of cells that are actively dividing; these cells differentiate into various cell types that give rise to various tissues within the mature organ, all of which develop from the meristem.

In meristem culture, a bud is primarily cultured in an aseptic culture medium, where it develops into a shoot since the meristem already has cells that have differentiated to give rise to various shoot tissues.

A mass of undifferentiated cells is called a callus. The culture of callus involves cell differentiation and the subsequent growth of differentiated cells into various plant organs.

The ratio of various growth hormones determines how the callus differentiates.

When the medium solely contains auxins, the callus derived from tobacco plant pith can differentiate into a root cell; when the medium also contains cytokinins, it can develop into a shoot.

If the medium has a balanced amount of auxins and cytokinins, the callus may develop into a full plant since some cells will differentiate into root cells and others into shoot tissue.

In callus culture, the type of organ developing can be controlled by regulating the proportion of growth hormones like auxinx and cytokinins in the culture medium. Thus, the type of organ developing from meristem culture is predetermined depending upon the meristem taken for culture.

It is possible to induce the development of roots from the callus that is extracted from a plant's stem tissue and vice versa by controlling the ratio of growth hormones.

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Callus culture involves the growth of undifferentiated plant cells that form a mass of tissue, known as a callus, often derived from wounded or explanted plant tissues. Meristem culture involves the growth of plant tissue from meristematic cells, which are found at the tips of stems and roots.