Scientists found a 'hit-and-run' way to turn any single plant cell into a whole new plant without leaving any modified DNA behind.
April 14, 2026
Original Paper
A hit-and-run strategy for protoplast reprogramming and regeneration into transgene-free plants
bioRxiv · 10.64898/2026.04.10.717603
The Takeaway
Regenerating whole plants from a single cell is notoriously difficult and usually species-specific. This new 'EppTec' platform uses four universal factors to unlock plant pluripotency, which could fast-track the creation of climate-resilient crops for conservation.
From the abstract
The ability of protoplasts to regenerate into whole plants underpins advances in crop engineering and pluripotency research. However, most protoplasts exhibit poor division and limited shoot regeneration, restricting their broader utility. Here, we present EppTec (Efficient regeneration of transgene-free whole Plants from Protoplasts reprogrammed by Transiently Expressed Combinatorial factors), a transient expression platform using defined combinatorial factors (CFs) to unlock protoplast pluripo