Plant regeneration from embryogenic callus derived from shoot apices and production of transgenic plants by particle inflow gun in dwarf napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schumach.)

Tissue Culture and Somatic Embryogenesis in Warm-Season Grasses—Current Status and Its Applications: A Review

Warm-season grasses are C4 plants and have a high capacity for biomass productivity. These grasses are utilized in many agricultural production systems with their greatest value as feeds for livestock, bioethanol, and turf. However, many important warm-season perennial grasses multiply either by vegetative propagation or form their seeds by an asexual mode of reproduction called apomixis. Therefore, the improvement of these grasses by conventional breeding is difficult and is dependent on the availability of natural genetic variation and its manipulation through breeding and selection. Recent studies have indicated that plant tissue culture system through somatic embryogenesis complements and could further develop conventional breeding programs by micropropagation, somaclonal variation, somatic hybridization, genetic transformation, and genome editing. This review summarizes the tissue culture and somatic embryogenesis in warm-season grasses and focus on current status and above applications including the author’s progress.

Genetic Transformation of Apomictic Grasses: Progress and Constraints

The available methods for plant transformation and expansion beyond its limits remain especially critical for crop improvement. For grass species, this is even more critical, mainly due to drawbacks in in vitro regeneration. Despite the existence of many protocols in grasses to achieve genetic transformation through Agrobacterium or biolistic gene delivery, their efficiencies are genotype-dependent and still very low due to the recalcitrance of these species to in vitro regeneration. Many plant transformation facilities for cereals and other important crops may be found around the world in universities and enterprises, but this is not the case for apomictic species, many of which are C4 grasses. Moreover, apomixis (asexual reproduction by seeds) represents an additional constraint for breeding. However, the transformation of an apomictic clone is an attractive strategy, as the transgene is immediately fixed in a highly adapted genetic background, capable of large-scale clonal propagation. With the exception of some species like Brachiaria brizantha which is planted in approximately 100 M ha in Brazil, apomixis is almost non-present in economically important crops. However, as it is sometimes present in their wild relatives, the main goal is to transfer this trait to crops to fix heterosis. Until now this has been a difficult task, mainly because many aspects of apomixis are unknown. Over the last few years, many candidate genes have been identified and attempts have been made to characterize them functionally in Arabidopsis and rice. However, functional analysis in true apomictic species lags far behind, mainly due to the complexity of its genomes, of the trait itself, and the lack of efficient genetic transformation protocols. In this study, we review the current status of the in vitro culture and genetic transformation methods focusing on apomictic grasses, and the prospects for the application of new tools assayed in other related species, with two aims: to pave the way for discovering the molecular pathways involved in apomixis and to develop new capacities for breeding purposes because many of these grasses are important forage or biofuel resources.

Protocol development for somatic embryogenesis, SSR markers and genetic modification of Stipagrostis pennata (Trin.) De Winter

BACKGROUND

Stipagrostis pennata (Trin.) De Winter is an important species for fixing sand in shifting and semi-fixed sandy lands, for grazing, and potentially as a source of lignocellulose fibres for pulp and paper industry. The seeds have low viability, which limits uses for revegetation. Somatic embryogenesis offers an alternative method for obtaining large numbers of plants from limited seed sources.

RESULTS

A protocol for plant regeneration from somatic embryos of S. pennata was developed. Somatic embryogenesis was induced on Murashige & Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 3 mg·L-1 2,4-D subsequently shoots were induced on MS medium and supplemented with 5 mg·L-1 zeatin riboside. The highest shoots induction was obtained when embryogenic callus derived from mature embryos (96%) in combination with MS filter-sterilized medium was used from Khuzestan location. The genetic stability of regenerated plants was analysed using ten simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers from S. pennata which showed no somaclonal variation in regenerated plants from somatic embryos of S. pennata. The regenerated plants of S. pennata showed genetic stability without any somaclonal variation for the four pairs of primers that gave the expected amplicon sizes. This data seems very reliable as three of the PCR products belonged to the coding region of the genome. Furthermore, stable expression of GUS was obtained after Agrobacterium-mediated transformation using a super binary vector carried by a bacterial strain LBA4404.

CONCLUSION

To our knowledge, the current work is the first attempt to develop an in vitro protocol for somatic embryogenesis including the SSR marker analyses of regenerated plants, and Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of S. pennata that can be used for its large-scale production for commercial purposes.

Protuberances are organized distinct regions of long-term callus: histological and transcriptomic analyses in kiwifruit

KEY MESSAGE

Macroscopic, ultrastructural, and molecular features-like a ball shape, the presence of starch granules, and the up-regulation of genes involved in carbohydrate metabolism and secondary metabolite biosynthesis-distinguish PT regions within a callus. The modification of the mass of pluripotent cells into de novo shoot bud regeneration is highly relevant to developmental biology and for agriculture and biotechnology. This study deals with protuberances (PT), structures that appear during the organogenic long-term culturing of callus (OC) in kiwifruit. These ball-shaped regions of callus might be considered the first morphological sign of the subsequent shoot bud development. Sections of PT show the regular arrangement of some cells, especially on the surface, in contrast to the regions of OC beyond the PT. The cells of OC possess chloroplasts; however, starch granules were observed only in PTs' plastids. Transcriptomic data revealed unique gene expression for each kind of sample: OC, PT, and PT with visible shoot buds (PT-SH). Higher expression of the gene involved in lipid (glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase 5 [GPAT5]), carbohydrate (granule-bound starch synthase 1 [GBSS1]), and secondary metabolite (beta-glucosidase 45 [BGL45]) pathways were detected in PT and could be proposed as the markers of these structures. The up-regulation of the regulatory associated protein of TOR (RAPTOR1) was found in PT-SH. The highest expression of the actinidain gene in leaves from two-year-old regenerated plants suggests that the synthesis of this protein takes place in fully developed organs. The findings indicate that PT and PT-SH are specific structures within OC but have more features in common with callus tissue than with organs.

Improving the Yield and Nutritional Quality of Forage Crops

Despite being some of the most important crops globally, there has been limited research on forages when compared with cereals, fruits, and vegetables. This review summarizes the literature highlighting the significance of forage crops, the current improvements and some of future directions for improving yield and nutritional quality. We make the point that the knowledge obtained from model plant and grain crops can be applied to forage crops. The timely development of genomics and bioinformatics together with genome editing techniques offer great scope to improve forage crops. Given the social, environmental and economic importance of forage across the globe and especially in poorer countries, this opportunity has enormous potential to improve food security and political stability.