Quote Originally Posted by jono
All:

I've been looking all over the net and in books, but I'm still not clear on where to take the meristem explant from on the actual plant. I understand it's on the stem tip near the primordial leaves, but can someone point to a picture that actually shows this location or explain where this location can be (it seems it can be in a couple places on the plant).


Thanks,
Jon
Meristems are located wherever the plant grows from. You can use root tips, leaf tips, eyes, nodes etc. However, the quality of the meristem depends on where you take it. Root meristems are not as good as leaf meristems, you are likely to get much higher mutation rates. The more stable the tissue, such as node or leaf tip, the lower your mutation rates.

It may also interest you to know that what people call meristems etc, are not meristems whatsoever. They are only using meristematic cells for propagation. The meristem is much much smaller than the piece of tissue that is cultured.