How Plants
Regenerate:
Chemical strategies to unlock plant regeneration potential
Pil Joon Seo
Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
Plants possess a remarkable capacity for cellular reprogramming and tissue regeneration, which can be harnessed through tissue culture. Recent advances have begun to uncover the underlying genetic and epigenetic mechanisms that orchestrate these transitions in vitro. In this talk, I will first provide an overview of current progress in understanding plant regeneration during tissue culture, and then focus on key genetic barriers that limit in vitro regeneration efficiency. In particular, I will discuss how these constraints arise across five major stages: (1) founder cell formation, (2) callus proliferation, (3) pluripotency acquisition, (4) meristem conversion, (5) de novo organogenesis. To overcome these barriers, we have developed chemical biology approaches that modulate genetic and epigenetic regulators, thereby enhancing regeneration efficiency across a wide range of plant species. Because regeneration efficiency remains a critical bottleneck in plant biotechnology, these strategies offer valuable opportunities to improve transformation and regeneration in recalcitrant species and genotypes.
