Plant tissue culture (PTC) refers to the cultivation of undifferentiated plant cells, tissues, or organs on synthetic media under an aseptic environment and suitable controlled physical conditions. It is an important tool for both basic research and commercial applications.

This technique relies on the unique characteristic of plant cells called totipotency. Totipotency is the ability of a vegetative cell to divide and differentiate into any type of specialised cell or to regenerate into a whole plant. Any plant part used as starting material is called an explant, which can be regenerated into whole plants in vitro.