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Review

Early Plant Development as a Systems-Level Trait: Integrating Omics, Artificial Intelligence, and Emerging Biotechnologies

by
Abdallah S. Al-Sawa’eer
1,
Ali Al-Samydai
2,
Lama Odeh
3,
Fatima Haj Ahmad
4,*,
Renata Obekh
3,
Yousef M. Abd Elqader
1,
Anas Khaleel
5,
Ahmad M. Al-Athamneh
6,
Mariachiara Gabriele
7,
Simonetta Cristina Di Simone
7,
Claudio Ferrante
7,*,
Luigi Menghini
7 and
Ahmed S. A. Ali Agha
8,*
1
National Seeds Production Company, Amman 11183, Jordan
2
Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology, Pharmacological and Diagnostic Research Centre, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Ahliyya Amman University, Amman 19111, Jordan
3
Department of Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, The Hashemite University, Zarqa 13133, Jordan
4
Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Al-Balqa Applied University, Al-Salt 19117, Jordan
5
Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of Petra, Amman 11196, Jordan
6
Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of Petra, Amman 11196, Jordan
7
Botanical Garden “Giardino dei Semplici”, Department of Pharmacy, “G. d’Annunzio” University “Chieti-Pescara”, Via dei Vestini n. 31, 66100 Chieti, Italy
8
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Plants 2026, 15(5), 787; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15050787
Submission received: 30 January 2026 / Revised: 28 February 2026 / Accepted: 2 March 2026 / Published: 4 March 2026
(This article belongs to the Section Plant Development and Morphogenesis)
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Abstract

Seed germination and early seedling development are critical determinants of crop establishment, stress tolerance, and yield stability, yet these stages remain insufficiently integrated into contemporary crop improvement strategies. Recent advances across genome editing, microbiome-assisted seed treatments, nanotechnology-enabled priming, and artificial intelligence-guided phenotyping have generated substantial but fragmented insights into early developmental regulation. This review synthesizes recent advances across early plant development research. It demonstrates that seemingly diverse technologies converge on a limited set of regulatory control nodes, including abscisic acid–gibberellin balance, redox homeostasis, and root system architectural plasticity. By integrating evidence from molecular, microbial, physicochemical, and computational studies, early plant ontogeny is presented as a tunable regulatory state governed by quantitative thresholds rather than as a strictly predetermined genetic process. Advances in deep learning, reinforcement learning, and high-throughput phenotyping further enable the modeling and optimization of early developmental trajectories across genotype by environment contexts. Together, these insights establish early development as a programmable target for crop improvement and provide a mechanistic foundation for designing integrated interventions that enhance developmental uniformity, stress resilience, and yield stability across diverse agroecological systems.
Keywords: seed germination; early seedling vigor; CRISPR-Cas; nanopriming; multi-omics; artificial intelligence seed germination; early seedling vigor; CRISPR-Cas; nanopriming; multi-omics; artificial intelligence
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MDPI and ACS Style

Al-Sawa’eer, A.S.; Al-Samydai, A.; Odeh, L.; Haj Ahmad, F.; Obekh, R.; Elqader, Y.M.A.; Khaleel, A.; Al-Athamneh, A.M.; Gabriele, M.; Di Simone, S.C.; et al. Early Plant Development as a Systems-Level Trait: Integrating Omics, Artificial Intelligence, and Emerging Biotechnologies. Plants 2026, 15, 787. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15050787

AMA Style

Al-Sawa’eer AS, Al-Samydai A, Odeh L, Haj Ahmad F, Obekh R, Elqader YMA, Khaleel A, Al-Athamneh AM, Gabriele M, Di Simone SC, et al. Early Plant Development as a Systems-Level Trait: Integrating Omics, Artificial Intelligence, and Emerging Biotechnologies. Plants. 2026; 15(5):787. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15050787

Chicago/Turabian Style

Al-Sawa’eer, Abdallah S., Ali Al-Samydai, Lama Odeh, Fatima Haj Ahmad, Renata Obekh, Yousef M. Abd Elqader, Anas Khaleel, Ahmad M. Al-Athamneh, Mariachiara Gabriele, Simonetta Cristina Di Simone, and et al. 2026. "Early Plant Development as a Systems-Level Trait: Integrating Omics, Artificial Intelligence, and Emerging Biotechnologies" Plants 15, no. 5: 787. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15050787

APA Style

Al-Sawa’eer, A. S., Al-Samydai, A., Odeh, L., Haj Ahmad, F., Obekh, R., Elqader, Y. M. A., Khaleel, A., Al-Athamneh, A. M., Gabriele, M., Di Simone, S. C., Ferrante, C., Menghini, L., & Ali Agha, A. S. A. (2026). Early Plant Development as a Systems-Level Trait: Integrating Omics, Artificial Intelligence, and Emerging Biotechnologies. Plants, 15(5), 787. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15050787

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