From mammalian tissue engineering to 3D plant cell culture

Recent advances applying mammalian tissue engineering to in vitro plant cell culture have successfully cultured single plant cells in a 3D microstructure, leading to the discovery of plant cell behaviours that were previously not envisaged. Animal and plant cells share a number of properties that rely on a hierarchical microenvironment for creating complex tissues. Both mammalian tissue engineering and 3D plant culture employ tailored scaffolds that alter a cell's behaviour from the initial culture used for seeding. For humans, these techniques are revolutionizing healthcare strategies, particularly in regenerative medicine and cancer studies. For plants, we predict applications both in fundamental research to study morphogenesis and for synthetic biology in the agri-biotech sector.