The Plant Cell Culture Library

The Plant Cell Culture Library (PCCL) at UMass Amherst maintains and makes available to the research community an unprecedented more than 1,000 diverse plant species for use by both academia and industry. The PCCL enables R&D exploitation of monocot, dicot and gymnosperm cultures.

• Over 1,000 living plant species in cell culture, representing plant diversity worldwide.
• A globally-unique library for discovery and development of novel leads for health, agricultural, consumer, and industrial applications.
• Ideal for both identification of new genes and molecules through metabolic pathway analyses and evaluation of extracts in targeted activity assays.
• This impressive collection is supported by cataloging, database and preservation.
• More information about our Rates and Services can be viewed here.

Inquiries regarding the purchase of Plant cell lines or other PCCL services can be directed to Michael Daley mpdaley@umass.edu

Using the Database

Searching by Taxonomic Classification:

The PCCL database has captured Order, Family, Genus and Species information for each cell line allowing users to search at different taxonomic levels. For example, entering the order Caryophyllales in the search bar returns all cultures in that order. Three dropdown menus display names for Family, Genus and the Accepted Binomial populated for all cell lines contained in the collection.

Searching by Properties:

You can also filter cultures in the collection by six different properties as reported in the literature (note, we have not evaluated these properties and make no claims as to their accuracy), Antiviral (AV), Antibacterial (AB), Antifungal (AF), Trypanocidal (TC), Anthelmintic (AH), Insecticidal (IC) and Anticancer (Ac). This can be done by using the search bar or selecting the desired properties column. Gn denotes that the particular property has been reported at the Genus Level in the literature, and Sp at the Species Level.

Searching by Availability/Growth Level:

All plant cell cultures in the PCCL are categorized into three levels of growth, High, Medium and Low. These can be filtered for by typing the desired growth level in the search bar, or by selecting the Availability column which will show high to low or low to high growth.

High: Callus doubles size in four to five weeks. Processing and preparation time until callus is shipped is two weeks.

Medium: Callus doubles size in eight to ten weeks. Processing and preparation time until callus is shipped is three weeks.

Low: Callus doubles size in twelve weeks. Inquire about lead time until shipment.

Insufficient material or slow growth may result in a lengthened preparation time before shipment.