Selected Laboratory Equipment and Kitchen Utensils as an Alternative Sterilization Method for Sterilizing Plant Tissue Culture Media

ABSTRACT Plant Tissue Culture (PTC) is defined as a technique in culturing different plant parts in vitro under sterile conditions, and supplemented with optimum nutrients. Due to COVID-19 pandemic which forced everyone to isolate and lock up themselves inside their respective homes, this PTC, which is a heavily laboratory-dependent activity of the students, professors, researchers, and other PTC enthusiasts, was halted. As a response to continuing the PTC remotely, the alternative options for sterilizing PTC media using inexpensive and commercially available laboratory equipment (UV ray and microwave) and kitchen utensils (steamer and casserole) were explored in this study. The commercially available 30mL hinge sauce cup was selected as an in vitro media container. The addition of the autoclavable plastic or ziplock significantly reduced the deformity of the containers, and contamination rate of the media. Among the laboratory set-up, the two-minute exposure of PTC media to the microwave produced almost the same sterile media in the autoclave method (control). On the other hand, both boiling, and steaming methods had no significant difference compared with the control. Among all the treatments, the steaming method for 20 min had maintained sterile cultures for 3 weeks, and consistent pH like in the control, making it highly recommended for sterilizing PTC media at remote places, particularly at home. Thus, the alternative sterilization protocol of PTC media has been established through this study.