Whoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)

The Evolutionary Route from Plant Tissue Culture to Plant Biotechnology

Plant biotechnology is an evolutionary scientific process, formulated and maintained by our accumulated cultural-societal knowledge and the invention of new technologies (Altman and Mesoudi submitted). It emerged thousands of years ago when wheat, rice, chickpeas, potatoes, and coffee (and other plants) were first domesticated; when grains were fermented by yeasts to produce bread; and when grape juice, barley, and tubers fermentation resulted in wine, alcohol, and beer. The modern era of plant biotechnology started in the beginning of the twentieth century and is associated with the ability to grow plant cells and tissues in vitro, to regenerate and clone new plants and, later, to modify their genetic characteristics by traditional and molecular breeding, including molecular marker-assisted selection (MAS), genetic modification (GM), and, more recently, genome editing. Additional novel procedures will most probably follow in the future.

The science and art of plant tissue culture, and indeed of plant biotechnology, had its roots in the vision of the Austrian botanist Gottlieb Haberlandt (1854–1945) who wrote in 1902: “To my knowledge, no systematically organized attempts to culture isolated vegetative cells from higher plants in simple nutrient solutions have been made. Yet the results of such culture experiments should give some insight to the properties and potentialities which the cell as an elementary organism possesses… I believe, in conclusion, that I am not making too bold a prediction if I point to the possibility that, in this way, one should successfully cultivate artificial embryos from vegetative cells.” His vision was accompanied by many experiments to cultivate differentiated epidermis cells of Ornithogalum and other species in an artificial medium in culture, which were however unsuccessful.

The first successful prolonged in vitro cultivation of plant tissues and organs—and their further proliferation and differentiation—included, among others, tomato roots (White 1934), tobacco and carrot calluses and cambial tissues (Gautheret 1934; Nob’ecourt 1939), shoot tips, and meristems (Ball 1946). Soon, an entire new arsenal of procedures and techniques became available to the scientific community for controlling plant regeneration and morphogenesis in culture. Some notable major discoveries included chemical and hormonal control of regeneration (Skoog and Miller 1957), basic and applied aspects of organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis (Reinert 1959; Komamine et al. 1992), practical micropropagation and production of virus-free plants (Morel 1960), haploid plants (Guha and Maheshwari 1964; Nitsch and Nitsch 1969), culture and regeneration of protoplasts (Cocking 1960), production of secondary metabolites (Kaul and Staba 1965), and large-scale cell culture in bioreactors (Noguchi et al. 1977), to mention just a few landmarks. This led, following many pioneering studies in dozens of laboratories around the world, to the first breakthrough of nowadays plant biotechnology: commercial micropropagation (Murashige 1974). The ongoing achievements in in vitro culture and selection of pollen, protoplasts, and cell suspensions—and their ability to regenerate whole plants—resulted in new disciplines of plant science: somatic cell genetics and metabolite production, somatic hybrids, production of haploid plants, selection of variants and mutants, and improved generation of metabolites. All became available for the community of plant scientists and breeders, expanding the diversity, agronomic, and commercial value of agricultural crop plants.

From its very start, plant tissue culture and plant biotechnology were associated with agriculture and agricultural biotechnology, domesticated and bred plants being the major study focus. In fact, achievements today in plant biotechnology have already surpassed all previous expectations. The full realization and impact of the new developments depend on continued successful and innovative research activities, as well as on a favorable regulatory climate and public acceptance.

The International Association of Plant Tissue Culture and Its Off-springs (IAPTC&B, IAPB)

The unprecedented achievements in plant tissue culture resulted in the first international conference of plant tissue culture, which was organized in 1963 by Philip R. White in University Park, PA, USA. However, it was not until 1970 that the International Association of Plant Tissue Culture (IAPTC) was formally established, launching its first Congress in Strasbourg, France, where the IAPTC constitution was approved. The major objective of the IAPTC was “to promote the interest of plant tissue culture workers.” This aim was achieved primarily by:

  1. 1.

    Convening International Congresses of Plant Tissue Culture every 4 yr

  2. 2.

    Publication of a newsletter

  3. 3.

    Establishing international country memberships, represented by National Correspondent

One of the key features of the IAPTC was, and still is, their wide international activity, each of the countries being represented by a National Correspondent. The governing body of the association is the Council, consisting of National Correspondents, that convenes every 4 yr during the International Congress. Local meetings can be held in different country members. In its climax period (1995–1997), the IAPTC had over 4500 members from 123 countries around the world.

Following are the quadrennial international congresses, during which a new IAPTC Chairman/President was elected for a 4-yr term by the assembly of National Correspondents:

  • 1963: University Park, PA, USA. Chairman—Philip R. White

  • 1970: Strasbourg, France. IAPTC Chairman—Leon Hirth (Strassbourg University)

  • 1974: Leicester, UK. IAPTC Chairman—Herbert E. Street (University of Leicester)

  • 1978: Calgary, Alberta, Canada. IAPTC Chairman—Trevor A. Thorpe (University of Calgary)

  • 1982: Tokyo and Lake Yamanaka, Japan. IAPTC Chairman—Akio Fujiwara (Tokyo University)

  • 1986: Minneapolis, MN, USA. IAPTC Chairman—C. Edward Green (University of Minnesota)

  • 1990: Amsterdam, The Netherlands. IAPTC Chairman—Robert A. Schilperoort (State University, Leiden).

  • 1994: Florence, Italy. IAPTC Chairman—Francisco D’Amato (Pisa University)

  • 1998: Jerusalem, Israel. IAPTC/IAPTC&B Chairman/President—Arie Altman (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

  • 2002: Orlando, FL, USA. IAPTC&B President—Indra K. Vasil (University of Florida)

  • 2006: Beijing, China. IAPTC&B President—Zhi-hong Xu (Beijing University)

  • 2010: St. Louis, MO, USA. IAPB President—Roger Beachy (Donald Danforth Plant Science Center)

  • 2014: Melbourne, Australia. IAPB President—German Spangenberg (La Trobe University)

  • 2018: Dublin, Ireland. IAPB President—Barbara Doyle Prestwich (University College Cork)

  • 2022: South Korea. IAPB President—Jang R. Liu (Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology KRIBB, Daejeon)

During the 1998 congress in Jerusalem, the IAPTC was formally renamed as the International Association of Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology (IAPTC&B), reflecting the increasing role and impact of plant biotechnology. The name of the association was again modified during the 2006 congress in Beijing and it was renamed the International Association of Plant Biotechnology (IAPB).

The first issue of the IAPTC official publication, IAPTC Newsletter, was published in 1971 and was edited by Herbert E. Street. It contained different announcements, details of activities in individual laboratories, lists of new publications and new IAPTC members, and scientific reports. The Newsletter was expanded in 1975 by Trevor A. Thorpe by introducing research reports, invited reviews, feature articles, and additional information. Editors of the IAPTC Newsletter included Herbert E. Street, UK (1971–1974); Trevor A. Thorpe, Canada (1975–1978); Yasuyuki Yamada, Japan (1979–1982); Jack Widholm, USA (1983–1986); Ad J. Kool, The Netherlands (1987–1990); and Fiorella Lo Schiavo, Italy (1991–1994).

During the period of 1995–1998, the IAPTC Newsletter was replaced by the Journal of Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology, edited by Meira Ziv, Israel (1995–1998). Since 1998, it is published as part of the In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology–Plant (2 issues per year), edited first by Trevor A. Thorpe, Canada, and David Altman, USA (1999–2002); Eng-chong Pua, Singapore (2003–2006); Nigel Taylor, USA (2007–2010); John W. Forster, Australia (2011–2014); Ewen Mullins, Ireland (2015–2018); and Yong-Eui Choi, South Korea (2019–2022).

The New Era and Future Perspectives of Plant Biotechnology

The major pioneering discoveries in molecular biology, i.e., the structure, function and organization of nucleic acids, the genome, transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome, had its immediate impact on plant biology and biotechnology, with many prospects for agriculture and human well-being. Identification and sequencing of plant genes became a routine and, based upon earlier studies of DNA transfer from Agrobacterium tumefaciens into plants during crown gall formation, Marry-Dell Chilton, Jeff Schell & Marc van Montagu, independently and simultaneously, announced in January 1983 the production of the first-ever engineered plant, tobacco (De Framond et al. 1983; Zambryski et al. 1983; Gasser and Fraley 1989). A new era in plant biotechnology began, i.e., plant genetic transformation, resulting in major scientific, agronomic, and commercial achievements in dozens of genetically modified (GM) plant species, especially agricultural crops. Since then, hundreds of excellent scientists around the world were and are currently engaged in significant achievements in plant science, unraveling the secrets of plant tissue culture and biotechnology, indeed of plant growth, development, and morphogenesis. This is now followed successfully by novel methods of plant genome editing (Altman and Hasegawa 2012).

While plant agricultural biotechnologies have come to fruition due to the implementation of novel molecular marker-assisted crop breeding, genetic engineering and gene editing, it is important to distinguish the many considerable achievements from several remaining questions and to point out future R&D needs. At the genotype level, the use of genome mapping and omics markers resulted in impressive advances and became routine in the breeding of several field, horticultural, and forest plants. At the phenotype level, improved agricultural techniques (e.g., precision agriculture) are continuously being developed, resulting in enhanced yields and quality traits. In addition, novel high-throughput selection and machine-learning systems are being developed to enable rapid pre-field screening for specific traits and may eventually become routine. Future directions, the prospects for which seem promising, should be aimed at solving the current major hurdles to agricultural biotechnology. (i) Bridging the genotype–phenotype gap by improving quantitative and automated selection and screening methods that focus on whole-plant physiology (e.g., transpiration, photosynthesis) and quality traits. These traits, combined with decision-making algorithms and machine learning (Harfouche et al., submitted), will enhance the release of newly bred varieties to farmers and avoid long development phases and large-scale field studies. (ii) Bridging the genome–environment gap: since many desired plant traits depend on the interaction of many genes and metabolic pathways with the environment, enhanced adoption of translational and interactome research at all R&D stages (viz., continuously relating molecular data and breeding parameters to field performance) should preferably use more model crop plants. (iii) More attention should be given to epigenetic molecular events that are evolutionarily most relevant to plant adaptation to changing environments. (iv) Improving the biotechnological procedures of novel biomaterial production. (v) Promoting transparent dialog between molecular biologists and plant physiologists on the one hand and farmers, breeding companies, and the public on the other hand, to solve jointly the economic, sociological, legal, and ethical hurdles. We thus urge the adoption of a systems bio-agriculture integrated approach (as in systems biology), also considering the plant microbiome, to achieve substantial progress in plant biotechnology and agriculture in the twenty-first century (Moshelion and Altman 2015).

Plant biotechnology—especially in vitro regeneration and cell biology, DNA modifications and biochemical engineering—is already changing the plant and agricultural scene. Two parallel research approaches will most likely exist simultaneously in the near future: the transgenic approach (expression of unique genes and specific promoters and transcription factors) and the non-transgenic approach (genomics-assisted gene discovery, marker-assisted selection, enhancing genome editing of major agricultural plants, unraveling the structure and functions of the epigenome, use of more efficient mutations, and clonal agriculture). The various facets of plant biotechnology are illustrated in Fig. 1.

Figure 1.
figure 1

The agricultural biotechnology processing and screening funnel. The agricultural biotechnology landscape is presented here as a processing and screening funnel comprising the major targets of plant and agricultural biotechnologies. The funnel is nourished by the various “ingredients”; that is, diverse scientific inputs in addition to plants and their genomes. Following appropriate screening techniques, the various agricultural products and traits are expressed and released for consumers. The hand holding the funnel emphasizes that all biotechnological applications should be evaluated with respect to their contribution to global food security and judged by economic, sociological, legal, and ethical criteria (Reproduced with permission, Moshelion and Altman 2015). The three major targets of plant and agricultural biotechnologies, illustrated here as the processing and screening funnel, include food security (i.e., yields—quantity and quality—supplying the caloric needs, proteins, oils, vitamins, and all other nutritious factors), production of novel biomaterials (plant-based pharmaceuticals, bioplastics, biofuels, and others), and sustainability (taking care of environments and keeping ecological balance). The reservoir of millennia-old plant and gene resources, from ancient plant evolution and domestication, were followed by long-term changes in crop traits due to natural and human-directed breeding and selection. This resulted in producing the current crop varieties. However, these techniques are no longer powerful to satisfy the current and future needs. The resulting products and traits include products for direct human consumption (grains, fruits, tuber, bulbs, corms, leaves, flowers, and also fibers, cork, timber, and more), both yield and quality, botanical traits of importance to plant development (e.g., shoot and root architecture, growth and elongation), and, perhaps most important, tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses. Finally, all biotechnological applications are scrutinized with respect to global food security, economical, agricultural, sociological, legal, and ethical considerations, aiming at public acceptance. Further advancements depend on efficient combination and application of diverse scientific inputs which are illustrated here as the ingredients going into the biotechnology processing funnel: cell biology, biochemistry and metabolism, the various omic’s, system and synthetic biology, and other enabling techniques (e.g., tissue culture, transformation, and informatics).

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The full realization and impact of the new developments, and those that will be developed in the future, depend not only on continued successful and innovative research and development activities but also on a favorable regulatory climate, on public acceptance, and on joint efforts that take into account also diversified sociological and economic factors. Plant scientists have now, more than in the past, a central role in society. The International Association of Plant Biotechnology (IAPB), caring for and supporting plant tissue culture, biotechnology, and associated agricultural activities around the world, is here to serve you.