Laboratory contamination management: the requirement for microbiological quality assurance

Abstract

Microbial contamination is the single most important cause of losses in commercial and scientific plant tissue culture laboratories [1,2]. However, even in commercial companies the severity and implications of the problem are not recognised or admitted. Many scientific laboratories fail to record contamination losses, and the micropropagation industry often only recognises the sources of contamination after severe losses have occurred. Following a rapid increase in the production of micropropagated plants in the 1980s [3], there has been a steady decline in the number of micropropagation laboratories in the 1990s, which was at least partially caused by the inability of laboratories to reduce contamination losses to a level which allows a predictable production output and quality of micropropagated plants.