Tissue culture concepts
Plants, explants, and stages
xPlant organizes tissue culture records into three connected concepts: Plants, Explants, and Stages. Understanding how they work together makes it easier to document cultures, track their development, and build connected laboratory histories.
Plants
A Plant represents the source plant from which tissue culture material originates in xPlant. It holds identifying information such as species, cultivar, photo, origin notes, and any tags or labels you apply. It can also carry its own Stage history (Mother Block, Production, Field, etc.) that reflects the status of the source Plant itself, not its in vitro Explants.
Plant records can remain in your library even after all related Explants have been discarded, so source information and history stay connected to the work derived from them.
Plant stage options
Explants
An Explant represents an individual tissue culture tracked in xPlant for in vitro propagation. When a source Plant record exists, the Explant can remain linked to it while maintaining its own label, Stage and Transfer history, contamination records, observations, and media links.
When you establish multiple cultures from the same source Plant, create separate Explants for the cultures you want to track independently. Do not use vessel count alone to define Explants: an Explant is the tracked culture record, while a vessel is the physical container used during culture. This lets related cultures maintain independent histories — for example, one Explant may show contamination while another does not.
Explant stage options
Stages
A Stage records a phase in the development or status of a Plant or Explant. Each Stage can capture:
- Stage type (e.g. Multiplication, Rooting)
- Status (Active, Completed, Failed, Archived)
- Entry date and optional start / completion timestamps
- Description and observation notes
- Room or physical location
- For Explant Stages, optional vessel count, plantlet estimate, and survival count
Stage entries form a chronological history. xPlant keeps a current Stage for the Plant or Explant while earlier Stage entries remain available for reviewing how the record changed over time.
The key distinction
Plant Stages track the status of the source Plant — is it in Production, Quarantine, or Discarded? Explant Stages track the development of an individual tissue culture — is the Explant at Explant Initiation, Multiplication, Rooting, or Acclimatization?
A source Plant can be active as a Mother Block while its Explants are simultaneously at Multiplication, Rooting, and Acclimatization. Each record answers a different question.