Transcriptome Analysis of Plant Protoplasts Reprogrammed into Stem Cells

Cellular reprogramming is an essential biological phenomenon in which cells degenerate from a specialized, differentiated state into a simple, undifferentiated cell type. Differentiated plant cells can retain the ability to be reprogrammed into pluripotent stem cells during regeneration. Therefore, elucidating how cell reprogramming occurs is essential to help us understand the mechanisms by which cell division and differentiation occur. Reprogramming of differentiated cells into pluripotent stem cells is frequently observed in plants and is easier to induce in plants than in animals. Compared with animal cells, differentiated plant cells possess multiple developmental potentials during development and retain plasticity that allows for dedifferentiation. However, the genetic and molecular basis of this difference between plant and animal cells is mostly unknown. Research on animal cell reprogramming is limited due to the lack of suitable and convenient experimental systems. Plant protoplasts (plant cells without cell walls) provide excellent experimental tools for studying the biochemical and molecular basis of cellular reprogramming into stem cells.

Fig. 1. Mesophyll protoplast reprogramming to totipotency. (Pasternak et al., 2020)

Our Solutions

The phenomenon of plant cell reprogramming and its mechanisms have been studied using different systems based mainly on multicellular explants derived from leaves or roots. However, interpreting data from regenerative systems is complicated because these explants contain different cell types with different epigenetic and metabolic characteristics. Lifeasible is committed to studying cell reprogramming to stem cells through protoplasts.

Studying cell reprogramming requires a reliable source of high-quality protoplasts. We select the tissue source of the protoplasts based on two main criteria: the type of organ and the type of cells that make up the organ. In addition, we can isolate complete and high-quality protoplasts from leaves (chloroplasts), roots (root protoplasts), and healing tissues (healing tissue protoplasts).

Protoplasts undergo three phases during cell division activation and totipotency transition and are accompanied by various epigenetic, physiological, and molecular processes. Lifeasible offers the following plant protoplast systems to explore the mechanisms of stem cell reprogramming and key candidate regulators.

What We Can Do

• Characterize gene expression changes associated with protoplast reprogramming.
• Investigate the molecular mechanisms responsible for protoplasmic reprogramming.
• Identify candidate genes and key factors involved in reprogramming protoplasmic weight into stem cells.

Lifeasible provides protoplasts from various plant species and sources to help clients better understand the systems biology of plant cell reprogramming. We focus on analyzing the transcriptome during reprogramming plant protoplasts into stem cells. Contact us today to learn more about our solutions.

Reference

1. Pasternak, Taras, et al. "From single cell to plants: mesophyll protoplasts as a versatile system for investigating plant cell reprogramming." International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 21.12 (2020): 4195.