The progress of plant regeneration in vitro in molecular level is reviewed in this paper, including the main stages of plant tissue culture of explants, the molecular mechanisms of dedifferentiation of differentiated tissues, shoot regeneration and root regeneration, as well as the cytogenetic basis of regeneration traits in cereal crops. It is summarized that the limitation of plant genotypes with high and stable regeneration performance, shortage of cloned key genes associated with regeneration traits, and weak function of identified genes related to somatic embryogenesis in other plants are the main problems in the investigation of plant regeneration in molecular biology. In future the identification or development of the plant genotypes with desirable regeneration ability should be stressed by using various strategies to expand the gene resource for the exploration of the corresponding phenotype. The aim of this review is to deepen the awareness of the importance of molecular investigation in plant regeneration, and to boost the characterization of more plant regeneration-relevant genes for the further understanding of molecular mechanism of underlying plant organogenesis during plant tissue culture in vitro and the development of plant genetic engineering breeding.

tissue culture in vitro  /  plant regeneration  /  genes relevant to regeneration