Appreciating Animal iPSCs to shape Plant Cell Reprogramming Strategies.

Animals and plants have developed resilience mechanisms to effectively endure and overcome physical damage and environmental challenges throughout their lifespan. To sustain their vitality, both animals and plants employ mechanisms to replenish damaged cells, either directly, involving the activity of adult stem cells, or indirectly, via dedifferentiation of somatic cells that are induced to revert to a stem cell state and subsequently redifferentiate. Stem cell research has been a rapidly advancing field in animal studies for many years, driven by its promising potential in human therapeutics, including tissue regeneration and drug development. A major breakthrough was the discovery of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which are reprogrammed from somatic cells by expressing a limited set of transcription factors. This discovery enabled the generation of an unlimited supply of cells that can be differentiated into specific cell types and tissues. Equally, a keen interest in the connection between plant stem cells and regeneration has been developed in the last decade, driven by the demand to enhance plant traits like yield, resistance to pathogens and the opportunities provided by CRISPR/Cas mediated gene editing. Here we discuss how knowledge on stem cell biology benefits regeneration technology, and we speculate on the creation of a universal genotype-independent iPS cell system for plants to overcome regenerative recalcitrance.