plant-regeneration
Plant regeneration is the biological process by which plants regrow lost organs or whole new plants from damaged tissue, isolated cells, or explants, often through the dedifferentiation of specialized cells into pluripotent states. This capacity underpins critical agricultural and research applications, including genetic engineering, tissue culture propagation, and crop improvement, by enabling scientists to introduce desirable traits and regenerate entire plants from modified cells. Understanding the molecular pathways driving regeneration also sheds light on fundamental questions of cellular plasticity and developmental biology unique to plants.
open_in_new WikipediaPubMed · 2026-06-19
Scientists discovered that adding mammalian immune-signaling proteins to the lab process used to create genetically edited tomato plants dramatically improved success rates, especially in stubborn tomato varieties that previously resisted gene editing. This three-year study spanning six tomato lines suggests a broadly applicable trick for unlocking CRISPR-based improvements across diverse crop genotypes.
Mammalian growth factor supplementation significantly improved regeneration frequency across six tomato lines over three years, with the strongest gains in genotypes that previously resisted transformation
Two cytokines and one pro-inflammatory factor were selected based on their molecular similarity to plant kinase genes, suggesting a cross-kingdom signaling mechanism may underlie the effect
Growth factor treatment increased not only initial transformation success but also the yield of stable secondary transgenic lines, compounding the benefit for breeding programs
