Gottlieb Haberlandt first proposed and demonstrated the concept of totipotency in plant cells in 1902 by attempting to culture isolated leaf mesophyll cells, establishing the foundational idea that living plant cells retain the potential to regenerate an entire plant.

Correct Answer

G. Haberlandt.

Option Analysis

CV Raman: Incorrect. Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was a physicist renowned for the Raman effect in spectroscopy (Nobel Prize 1930), with no contributions to plant cell biology or totipotency.

T. Morgan: Incorrect. Thomas Hunt Morgan was a geneticist famous for discovering sex-linked inheritance in Drosophila and chromosome theory of heredity (Nobel Prize 1933), focused on animal genetics, not plant totipotency.

G. Haberlandt: Correct. Gottlieb Haberlandt, an Austrian botanist, introduced the totipotency concept in 1902 (“totipotentiality”), hypothesizing and experimentally attempting to culture isolated plant cells (e.g., leaf mesophyll) to prove a single cell could form a whole plant, laying groundwork for tissue culture despite initial failures.

EC Cocking: Incorrect. Edward C. Cocking advanced protoplast culture in the 1960s (e.g., tomato protoplasts), demonstrating cell wall regeneration, but this was practical application post-Haberlandt’s conceptual demonstration, not the origin of totipotency.

Totipotency in plant demonstrated by G. Haberlandt revolutionized plant biotechnology, proving differentiated cells retain full regenerative potential.

Historical Milestone

In 1902, Haberlandt cultured isolated plant cells, predicting totipotency (“ability for all”) despite technical limits; F.C. Steward later proved it practically in 1958 with carrot phloem.

Key Contributors Clarified

Haberlandt’s vision enabled tissue culture; others like Cocking built on it for protoplasts.

This underpins micropropagation and genetic engineering in agriculture. For exams, Haberlandt is credited for the foundational demonstration.​