**5. Types of explant and explant selection**

Explant is a sterile excised fragment of plants from which cultures are initiated. Generally, all types of plant cells or tissues can be used as an explant, however, it is preferable to use young and immature tissues that is rapidly dividing (at early stage of development) as an explant such as shoot tip, root tip, and young leaves. There are several factors need to be considered during explant selection process:


Apart from the above factors to select the best explant, another thing that is need to consider in selecting an explant is the goal of the experiment. The choice of explant tissues is depending on what type of response desired from the cell culture. For example, if the aim is to carry out clonal propagation, explant of shoot or root tip is suitable to achieve it. For callus induction, fragment of cotyledon, hypocotyl, stem, leaf, and embryo can be used as explant. For protoplast fusion, leaf tissue from aseptically germinated seeds are preferable.
