Plastid Transformation: How Does it Work? Can it Be Applied to Crops? What Can it Offer?

In recent years, plant genetic engineering has advanced agriculture in terms of crop improvement, stress and disease resistance, and pharmaceutical biosynthesis. Cells from land plants and algae contain three organelles that harbor DNA: the nucleus, plastid, and mitochondria. Although the most common approach for many plant species is the introduction of foreign DNA into the nucleus (nuclear transformation) via Agrobacterium- or biolistics-mediated delivery of transgenes, plastid transformation offers an alternative means for plant transformation. Since there are many copies of the chloroplast genome in each cell, higher levels of protein accumulation can often be achieved from transgenes inserted in the chloroplast genome compared to the nuclear genome. Chloroplasts are therefore becoming attractive hosts for the introduction of new agronomic traits, as well as for the biosynthesis of high-value pharmaceuticals, biomaterials and industrial enzymes. This review provides a comprehensive historical and biological perspective on plastid transformation, with a focus on current and emerging approaches such as the use of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) as DNA delivery vehicles, overexpressing morphogenic regulators to enhance regeneration ability, applying genome editing techniques to accelerate double-stranded break formation, and reconsidering protoplasts as a viable material for plastid genome engineering, even in transformation-recalcitrant species.