Developmental regulatory factors promote the efficiency of crop genetic transformation

Genetic transformation technology is a core tool for generating plants with gain- or loss-of-function in modern biology and agricultural biotechnology. In recent years, developmental regulatory factors (DRs) have shown great potential in enhancing the efficiency of crop genetic transformation. In this review, we systematically examine the main crop genetic transformation methods, including Agrobacterium-mediated transformation and gene gun techniques, and discuss the current challenges in the transformation process, such as low transformation efficiency, strong genotype dependence, and insufficient regeneration capacity. We then provide a detailed discussion of several key developmental regulatory factors and their recent applications in improving transformation efficiency, overcoming genotype dependence, and enhancing regeneration capacity. Additionally, we explore the future prospects of DRs, highlighting their significant potential applications in precision gene editing, functional genomics, synthetic biology, and crop genetic improvement. Through in-depth research on DRs, the bottlenecks in crop genetic transformation are expected to be effectively overcome, thus advancing the further development of crop science and agricultural biotechnology.