Molecular Mechanisms of Plant Regeneration from Differentiated Cells: Approaches from Historical Tissue Culture Systems


 Plants can exert remarkable capacity for cell reprogramming even from differentiated cells. This ability allows plants to regenerate tissues/organs and even individuals in nature and in vitro. In recent decades, Arabidopsis research has uncovered molecular mechanisms of plant regeneration, however, our understanding of how plant cells retain both differentiated status and developmental plasticity is still obscure. In this review, we will first provide a brief outlook of the representative modes of plant regeneration and key factors revealed by Arabidopsis research. We then reexamine historical tissue culture systems that enable us to investigate molecular details on cell reprogramming from differentiated cells and discuss the different approaches, specifically highlighting our recent progress in shoot regeneration from the epidermal cell of Torenia fournieri.