Tissue culture is a method for multiplying plants by growing plant parts such as protoplasm, cells, groups of cells, tissues, or organs into complete plants under aseptic conditions. In 2014 Badak LNG began designing and building a plant tissue culture laboratory in collaboration with the plant tissue culture laboratory department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Mulawarman University. The objective of the tissue culture laboratory program is to cultivate rare, endemic, or protected plants from Kalimantan in large quantity, in order to increase biodiversity around the company. Until the end of June 2023 the number of living cultivated plants in the tissue culture incubation room reach 1453 bottle of explants (6330 individuals) from 22 species (13 plants native to Kalimantan) while in the green house there are 1718 plants from 23 plant species (8 plants native to Kalimantan).
| Step | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sterilization | All tools must be Autoclaved first to eliminate contamination. Autoclave is a sterilizer with high pressure (17.5 psi) and high temperature (121 ͦC). This tool uses the principle of wet sterilization with high pressure hot water steam to keep the agar media in a good shape. |
| 2 | Media Preparation | The planting media are the composition of basic media such as Murashige and Skoog (MS), Vacin and Went (VW), and Woody Plant Media (WPM) plus agar and sugar. In addition, sometimes researchers also put some growth regulator such as auxin and cytokinin with particular concentration to promote development of organs (leaves, stem, root). |
| 3 | Initiation | Explant planting (initiation) is performed in the Laminar Air Flow Cabinet with aseptic conditions. Sterilized explants (ready for planting) are cut into pieces using scalpel and tweezers in a petri dish. The explant pieces are planted in a culture bottle that has filled the growing media. The culture bottle is closed with plastic and tightened with rubber. |
| 4 | Subculture | Explants that have been successfully initiated (free from contamination of bacteria and fungi) can proceed to the subculture process. This process is the key to the mass propagation of plant tissue culture. |
| 5 | Acclimatization | All explants that have become plantlets (quite large) are washed in running water until clean, then given a fungicide. Planlets are then planted in the media: Fern roots / Moss spaghnum / Burned husk. The planlet is kept in enclosed container or pot to maintain moisture until they become stable. |
