Toward Tissue-Free Plant Engineering: Emerging Platforms for Sustainable Horticultural Transformation

Area of Science:

• Horticultural Biotechnology
• Plant Genetic Engineering

Background:

• Traditional genetic transformation methods in horticultural crops face significant challenges, including genotype dependence, inefficient regeneration, and sterile culture requirements.
• Nontissue culture technologies are emerging as a transformative approach to overcome these limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review and evaluate recent in planta genetic transformation technologies for horticultural crops.
• To examine the integration of these methods with developmental regulators, visual markers, and CRISPR/Cas systems.
• To assess the applicability and challenges of these novel transformation strategies.

Main Methods:

• Survey of recent in planta transformation techniques: Regenerative Activity-dependent in Planta Injection Delivery (RAPID), cut-dip-budding (CDB), virus-based delivery, nanoparticle-mediated transformation, and Agrobacterium rhizogenes-induced regeneration.
• Evaluation of operational versatility across different horticultural species.
• Analysis of integration with genetic elements like BABY BOOM (BBM), WUSCHEL (WUS), RUBY marker, and CRISPR/Cas systems.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated broad applicability and growing technical maturity of in planta methods across fruit, vegetable, and ornamental crops.
• Case studies highlight the potential for enhanced transformation efficiency and precision through integration with developmental regulators and gene editing tools.
• Advances in bypassing genotype dependence and regeneration inefficiencies were observed.

Conclusions:

• Nontissue culture, in planta transformation methods represent a significant advancement in horticultural biotechnology.
• These rapid, genotype-independent, and environmentally compatible approaches offer scalable and accessible crop improvement.
• Further work is needed to address challenges in biosafety, reproducibility, and regulatory alignment for widespread adoption.