1State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
2Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Center for Quantitative Biology, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
3Peking University Institute of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, Shandong Laboratory of Advanced Agricultural Sciences in Weifang, Weifang, Shandong 261325, China
4College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| Received 14 Apr 2023 |
Accepted 04 Oct 2023 |
Published 16 Oct 2023 |
Rapid advances in DNA synthesis techniques have allowed the assembly and engineering of viral and microbial genomes. Multicellular eukaryotic organisms, with their larger genomes, abundant transposons, and prevalent epigenetic regulation, present a new frontier to synthetic genomics. Plant synthetic genomics have long been proposed, and exciting progress has been made using the top-down approach. In this perspective, we propose applying bottom-up genome synthesis in multicellular plants, starting from the model moss Physcomitrium patens, in which homologous recombination, DNA delivery, and regeneration are possible, although further optimizations are necessary. We then discuss technical barriers, including genome assembly and plant transformation, associated with synthetic genomics in seed plants.
