The capacity to generate a whole plant from any cell is called:

The correct answer is Option (4) → Totipotency

Option (1) Tissue culture — Incorrect. Tissue culture is the technique of growing whole plants from explants in a test tube, under sterile conditions and in a nutrient medium. It makes use of totipotency, but it is the technique, not the capacity itself.

Option (2) Micro-propagation — Incorrect. Micro-propagation is the method of producing thousands of plants through tissue culture. It uses totipotency, but it is the method, not the capacity itself.

Option (3) Parthenogenesis — Incorrect. Parthenogenesis is the development of an unfertilised egg into a new individual, as when the male honey bee (drone) develops from an unfertilised egg. It starts from an egg, not from any cell of the body.

Option (4) Totipotency — Correct. A single plant cell or a small piece of a plant (an explant) carries all the information needed to form a whole plant. This capacity is called totipotency.

Note: A similar question was also asked in CUET (UG) 2026 on 15-05-2026 (Slot 1), and in CUET (UG) 2023 on 08-06-2023 (Slot 3).

NCERT Extract:
Biotechnological Applications in Agriculture – …