Tip: If the purpose is to detect contamination in plant tissue culture, we recommend you use a gelling agent such as GelRite to obtain a transparent medium.A transparent solid media favors contamination identification during plant tissue culture.Ī clearer gelling agent such as GelRite is more expensive than a non-clear gelling agent (e.g., agar) because the former is refined and is commonly extracted from bacteria growth industrially. For instance, phytagel is clearer than agar. We will highlight the most critical things to consider when deciding which gelling agent to use and provide tips on choosing a gelling agent.Ĭlarity is how transparent your solid media looks. Instead, you'll need to take some time to consider the needs of your cell culture and your experiment to choose the right gelling agent.

Of course, the question becomes, what gelling agent is right for my experiment?įirst, we recommend you don't rush the decision to choose because gelling agents may affect the growth and behavior of the evaluated tissues. In culture media, gelling agents provide plants or bacteria physical support, aeration, and favor the growth.Ĭommon gelling agents include agar, phytagel, xhantam gum, carrageenan, isubgol, and guar gum.

Factors to consider when deciding are transparency, level of impurities, melting and gelling temperature, gel strength, and cost.Ī gelling agent or solidifier is used to prepare semi-solid tissue culture media. Choosing a gelling agent depends on your needs for your in vitro culture medium.

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