The developmental potentials of isolated mesophyll cells and protoplasts

The experiments of Haberlandt with isolated leaf cells of Lamium purpureum L., started in 1898 and published in 1902, laid the foundations of in vitro culture in higher plants. Based on the cell theory of Schwann and Schleiden, he considered every cell as an elementary organism and was convinced of the totipotency of even differentiated cells. Haberlandt and his successors achieved a limited survival and an extension growth of isolated cells but no real culture, meaning no division growth, due to the lack of favourable media at that time.