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Review
. 2025 Jun;23(6):2034-2058.
doi: 10.1111/pbi.70028. Epub 2025 Mar 7.

Plant genetic transformation: achievements, current status and future prospects

Peilin Wang #  1   2 , Huan Si #  3 , Chenhui Li #  1   2 , Zhongping Xu  4 , Huiming Guo  1   2 , Shuangxia Jin  4 , Hongmei Cheng  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Plant genetic transformation: achievements, current status and future prospects

Peilin Wang et al. Plant Biotechnol J. 2025 Jun.

Abstract

Regeneration represents a fundamental biological process wherein an organism's tissues or organs repair and replace themselves following damage or environmental stress. In plant systems, injured tree branches can regenerate adventitious buds and develop new crowns through propagation techniques like cuttings and canopy pruning, while transgenic plants emerge via tissue culture in genetic engineering processes intimately connected to plant regeneration mechanisms. The advancement of plant regeneration technology is critical for addressing complex and dynamic climate challenges, ultimately ensuring global agricultural sustainability. This review comprehensively synthesizes the latest genetic transformation technologies, including transformation systems across woody, herbaceous and algal species, organellar genetic modifications, crucial regeneration factors facilitating Agrobacterium-mediated transformations, the intricate hormonal networks regulating plant regeneration, comparative analyses of transient transformation approaches and marker gene dynamics throughout transformation processes. Ultimately, the review offers novel perspectives on current transformation bottlenecks and proposes future research trajectories.

Keywords: hormone regulation; plant genetic transformation; plant regeneration; regeneration factor; single‐cell and spatial transcriptome.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Timeline of the development of genetic transformation technology. The dotted boxes represent the key steps of the method.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The main processes of genetic transformation and the transformation‐related genes in each step.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Wounding, hormone induction and regeneration‐related pathways.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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