The capacity to generate a whole plant from any cell/explant is called-
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Totipotency
(1) Transformation — Incorrect. Transformation is the procedure through which a piece of DNA is introduced into a host bacterium. It has nothing to do with growing a whole plant.
(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.
(3) Totipotency — Correct. Any part of a plant (an explant) grown in a test tube, under sterile conditions and in a special nutrient medium, can give rise to a whole plant. This capacity of a cell or explant is called totipotency.
(4) Somatic hybridisation — Incorrect. Here the protoplasts (cells without cell walls) of two different plant varieties are fused. The new plants grown from them are called somatic hybrids.
Note: A similar question was also asked in CUET (UG) 2025 on 02-06-2025 (Slot 2), and in CUET (UG) 2023 on 08-06-2023 (Slot 3).
NCERT Extract:
Biotechnological Applications in Agriculture – …
