Career guide  /  Agriculture

A plant tissue culture technician grows plants from tiny tissues in sterile laboratory conditions. Working with nutrient media, glassware and clean air hoods, the technician multiplies plants quickly and keeps them free from disease. India's tissue culture labs supply bananas, sugarcane, ornamentals and other crops to farmers, creating demand for trained, careful lab technicians.

From a single leaf piece no bigger than a fingernail, a lab can produce thousands of identical, disease-free banana plants. That near-magic happens under the careful hands of a tissue culture technician.

Topics you will study

1. Introduction to plant tissue culture
2. Laboratory set-up and sterile techniques
3. Preparing and storing culture media
4. Inoculation, sub-culture and hardening
5. Lab safety and record keeping

Hands-on equipment (23)

Growing chamber	PH meter	Transplanting trowel
Weighing balance (electronic)	Hot plate/stirrer	Refrigerator and freezer
Laminar flow transfer hood	Glassware/ Beakers	Wash bottles
Brushes	Culture tubes	Culture tube racks
Forceps	Sterilizers, autoclave	Glass pipettes
Graduated cylinders	Thermometer	Microscope
Vacuum Pump	Distillation Plant	Centrifuge
Incubator	Aspiration pump (peristaltic or vaccum)

On the job: a typical day

The technician begins by washing hands, wearing a lab coat and wiping down the laminar flow hood with alcohol. A batch of culture media is prepared by weighing chemicals on an electronic weighing balance, mixing them on a hot plate stirrer and adjusting acidity with a pH meter. The media is poured into culture tubes and sterilised in the autoclave. After cooling, the technician uses sterile forceps inside the hood to transfer small shoots into fresh media. Contaminated tubes are removed and recorded. Later, rooted plantlets are shifted to the hardening area, and labels and logbooks are updated.

Key skills

• Working with sterile technique inside a laminar flow hood
• Preparing, measuring and adjusting culture media accurately
• Operating autoclaves, balances and pH meters safely
• Sub-culturing shoots and spotting contaminated cultures
• Hardening plantlets gradually before sending them to fields

Career destinations

Quick answers

Lab budget (approx.)

Approximate Indian market rates (Oct 2026, incl. GST) for the curriculum item list. For budget planning only; get final quotes from vendors.

Tissue culture lets one healthy plant become thousands. If you enjoy careful, clean and precise work, the lab could be the perfect place for you to grow.