Applications of Plant Biotechnology and Tissue Culture Techniques for Plant Production and Food Security

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Genetics, Genomics and Biotechnology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2024) | Viewed by 10058

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
1. Department of Plant Production, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
2. Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh 33516, Egypt
Interests: acclimatization; bioreactors; biotechnology; hydroponics; morphogenesis; oxidative stress; plant tissue culture; secondary metabolites
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Guest Editor
Research Institute of Nyíregyháza, Institutes for Agricultural Research and Educational Farm (IAREF), University of Debrecen, P.O. Box 12, 4400 Nyiregyháza, Hungary
Interests: plant breeding; crop improvement; plant biotechnology; plant biology; food science; evolutionary biology; molecular biology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The increasing world population and demand of food, the scarcity of irrigation water and various environmental stresses are the major challenges in achieving food security. New plant biotechnology approaches, coupled with tissue culture techniques, are being employed to increase and improve the production of agronomical and horticultural crops and several herbs and medicinal plant species. The application of the plant tissue culture method facilitates genetic improvements, plant breeding and the production of diseases-free plants; reduces the costs of commercial production and rescues endemic, endangered plant species. The use of doubled haploid technologies (isolated microspore/anther and unpollinated ovule culture in vitro) greatly accelerates the breeding process and increases the genetic diversity. This Special Issue invites researchers to contribute their work on plant production and crop improvement using plant tissue culture and biotechnology methods.

Prof. Dr. Yaser Hassan Dewir
Dr. Katalin Magyar-Tábori
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • acclimatization
  • anther culture
  • bioreactors
  • doubled haploids
  • food crops
  • genetic transformation
  • herbs and medicinal plants
  • in vitro breeding
  • in vitro grafting
  • liquid culture systems
  • micropropagation
  • microspore culture
  • morphogenesis
  • mutations
  • nano-particles
  • organogenesis
  • physiological disorders
  • plant growth substances
  • regeneration
  • rooting
  • rootstocks
  • somatic embryogenesis
  • stress tolerance and alleviation
  • unpollinated ovule culture
  • virus elimination

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 8113 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of Parameters Affecting Agrobacterium-Mediated Transient Gene Expression in Industrial Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.)
by Tasnim Mohammad, Rishikesh Ghogare, Lauren B. Morton, Amit Dhingra, Shobha Potlakayala, Sairam Rudrabhatla and Sarwan K. Dhir
Plants 2024, 13(5), 664; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13050664 - 28 Feb 2024
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2405
Abstract
Industrial hemp Cannabis sativa L. is an economically important crop mostly grown for its fiber, oil, and seeds. Due to its increasing applications in the pharmaceutical industry and a lack of knowledge of gene functions in cannabinoid biosynthesis pathways, developing an efficient transformation [...] Read more.
Industrial hemp Cannabis sativa L. is an economically important crop mostly grown for its fiber, oil, and seeds. Due to its increasing applications in the pharmaceutical industry and a lack of knowledge of gene functions in cannabinoid biosynthesis pathways, developing an efficient transformation platform for the genetic engineering of industrial hemp has become necessary to enable functional genomic and industrial application studies. A critical step in the development of Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation in the hemp genus is the establishment of optimal conditions for T-DNA gene delivery into different explants from which whole plantlets can be regenerated. As a first step in the development of a successful Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation method for hemp gene editing, the factors influencing the successful T-DNA integration and expression (as measured by transient β-glucuronidase (GUS) and Green Florescent Protein (GFP) expression) were investigated. In this study, the parameters for an agroinfiltration system in hemp, which applies to the stable transformation method, were optimized. In the present study, we tested different explants, such as 1- to 3-week-old leaves, cotyledons, hypocotyls, root segments, nodal parts, and 2- to 3-week-old leaf-derived calli. We observed that the 3-week-old leaves were the best explant for transient gene expression. Fully expanded 2- to 3-week-old leaf explants, in combination with 30 min of immersion time, 60 µM silver nitrate, 0.5 µM calcium chloride, 150 µM natural phenolic compound acetosyringone, and a bacterial density of OD600nm = 0.4 resulted in the highest GUS and GFP expression. The improved method of genetic transformation established in the present study will be useful for the introduction of foreign genes of interest, using the latest technologies such as genome editing, and studying gene functions that regulate secondary metabolites in hemp. Full article
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16 pages, 6734 KiB  
Article
Plant Regeneration via Adventitious Shoot Formation from Immature Zygotic Embryo Explants of Camelina
by Barno Ruzimurodovna Rezaeva, Twan Rutten, Carola Bollmann, Stefan Ortleb, Michael Melzer and Jochen Kumlehn
Plants 2024, 13(4), 465; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13040465 - 6 Feb 2024
Viewed by 2147
Abstract
Camelina is an oil seed crop that is enjoying increasing interest because it has a particularly valuable fatty acid profile, is modest regarding its water and nutrient requirements, and is comparatively resilient to abiotic and biotic stress factors. The regeneration of plants from [...] Read more.
Camelina is an oil seed crop that is enjoying increasing interest because it has a particularly valuable fatty acid profile, is modest regarding its water and nutrient requirements, and is comparatively resilient to abiotic and biotic stress factors. The regeneration of plants from cells accessible to genetic manipulation is an essential prerequisite for the generation of genetically engineered plants, be it by transgenesis or genome editing. Here, immature embryos were used on the assumption that their incomplete differentiation was associated with totipotency. In culture, regenerative structures appeared adventitiously at the embryos’ hypocotyls. For this, the application of auxin- or cytokinin-type growth regulators was essential. The formation of regenerative structures was most efficient when indole-3-acetic acid was added to the induction medium at 1 mg/L, zygotic embryos of the medium walking stick stage were used, and their hypocotyls were stimulated by pricking to a wound response. Histological examinations revealed that the formation of adventitious shoots was initiated by locally activated cell division and proliferation in the epidermis and the outer cortex of the hypocotyl. While the regeneration of plants was established in principle using the experimental line Cam139, the method proved to be similarly applicable to the current cultivar Ligena, and hence it constitutes a vital basis for future genetic engineering approaches. Full article
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20 pages, 9141 KiB  
Article
Elicitation Induced α-Amyrin Synthesis in Tylophora indica In Vitro Cultures and Comparative Phytochemical Analyses of In Vivo and Micropropagated Plants
by Jyoti Mamgain, Abdul Mujib, Yashika Bansal, Basit Gulzar, Nadia Zafar, Rukaya Syeed, Ali Alsughayyir and Yaser Hassan Dewir
Plants 2024, 13(1), 122; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13010122 - 31 Dec 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1576
Abstract
Tylophora indica (Burm. f.) Merrill is an endangered medicinal plant that possesses various active agents, such as tylophorinine, kaempferol, quercetin, α-amyrin and beta-sitosterol, with multiple medicinal benefits. α-amyrin, a triterpenoid, is widely known for its antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, gastroprotective and hepatoprotective properties. In this [...] Read more.
Tylophora indica (Burm. f.) Merrill is an endangered medicinal plant that possesses various active agents, such as tylophorinine, kaempferol, quercetin, α-amyrin and beta-sitosterol, with multiple medicinal benefits. α-amyrin, a triterpenoid, is widely known for its antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, gastroprotective and hepatoprotective properties. In this study, we investigated the metabolite profiling of tissues and the effects of cadmium chloride and chitosan on in vitro accumulation of alkaloids in T. indica. First, the callus was induced from the leaf in 2,4-D-, NAA- and/or BAP-fortified MS medium. Subsequent shoot formation through organogenesis and in vitro roots was later induced. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS)-based phytochemical profiling of methanolic extracts of in vivo and in vitro regenerated plants was conducted, revealing the presence of the important phytocompounds α-amyrin, lupeol, beta-sitosterol, septicine, tocopherol and several others. Different in vitro grown tissues, like callus, leaf and root, were elicited with cadmium chloride (0.1–0.4 mg L−1) and chitosan (1–50 mg L−1) to evaluate the effect of elicitation on α-amyrin accumulation, measured with high-performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC). CdCl2 and chitosan showed improved sugar (17.24 and 15.04 mg g−1 FW, respectively), protein (10.76 and 9.99 mg g−1 FW, respectively) and proline (7.46 and 7.12 mg g−1 FW), especially at T3 (0.3 and 25 mg L−1), in the leaf as compared to those of the control and other tissues. The antioxidant enzyme activities were also evaluated under an elicitated stress situation, wherein catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) displayed the highest activities in the leaf at T4 of both of the two elicitors. The α-amyrin yield was quantified with HPTLC in all tested tissues (leaf, callus and root) and had an Rf = 0.62 at 510 nm wavelength. Among all the concentrations tested, the T3 treatment (0.3 mg L−1 of cadmium chloride and 25 mg L−1 of chitosan) had the best influence on accumulation, irrespective of the tissues, with the maximum being in the leaf (2.72 and 2.64 μg g−1 DW, respectively), followed by the callus and root. Therefore, these results suggest future opportunities of elicitors in scaling up the production of important secondary metabolites to meet the requirements of the pharmaceutical industry. Full article
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27 pages, 3764 KiB  
Article
Machine Learning Analysis of the Impact of Silver Nitrate and Silver Nanoparticles on Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.): Callus Induction, Plant Regeneration, and DNA Methylation
by Aras Türkoğlu, Kamil Haliloğlu, Fatih Demirel, Murat Aydin, Semra Çiçek, Esma Yiğider, Serap Demirel, Magdalena Piekutowska, Piotr Szulc and Gniewko Niedbała
Plants 2023, 12(24), 4151; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12244151 - 13 Dec 2023
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2102
Abstract
The objective of this study was to comprehend the efficiency of wheat regeneration, callus induction, and DNA methylation through the application of mathematical frameworks and artificial intelligence (AI)-based models. This research aimed to explore the impact of treatments with AgNO3 and Ag-NPs [...] Read more.
The objective of this study was to comprehend the efficiency of wheat regeneration, callus induction, and DNA methylation through the application of mathematical frameworks and artificial intelligence (AI)-based models. This research aimed to explore the impact of treatments with AgNO3 and Ag-NPs on various parameters. The study specifically concentrated on analyzing RAPD profiles and modeling regeneration parameters. The treatments and molecular findings served as input variables in the modeling process. It included the use of AgNO3 and Ag-NPs at different concentrations (0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 mg L−1). The in vitro and epigenetic characteristics were analyzed using several machine learning (ML) methods, including support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), k-nearest neighbor classifier (KNN), and Gaussian processes classifier (GP) methods. This study’s results revealed that the highest values for callus induction (CI%) and embryogenic callus induction (EC%) occurred at a concentration of 2 mg L−1 of Ag-NPs. Additionally, the regeneration efficiency (RE) parameter reached its peak at a concentration of 8 mg L−1 of AgNO3. Taking an epigenetic approach, AgNO3 at a concentration of 2 mg L−1 demonstrated the highest levels of genomic template stability (GTS), at 79.3%. There was a positive correlation seen between increased levels of AgNO3 and DNA hypermethylation. Conversely, elevated levels of Ag-NPs were associated with DNA hypomethylation. The models were used to estimate the relationships between the input elements, including treatments, concentration, GTS rates, and Msp I and Hpa II polymorphism, and the in vitro output parameters. The findings suggested that the XGBoost model exhibited superior performance scores for callus induction (CI), as evidenced by an R2 score of 51.5%, which explained the variances. Additionally, the RF model explained 71.9% of the total variance and showed superior efficacy in terms of EC%. Furthermore, the GP model, which provided the most robust statistics for RE, yielded an R2 value of 52.5%, signifying its ability to account for a substantial portion of the total variance present in the data. This study exemplifies the application of various machine learning models in the cultivation of mature wheat embryos under the influence of treatments and concentrations involving AgNO3 and Ag-NPs. Full article
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