A short history of plant biotechnology Indra K. Vasil Received: 24 September 2007 / Accepted: 11 October 2007 / Published online: 31 October 2007 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007 Abstract The foundations of modern plant biotech- nology can be traced back to the Cell Theory of Schleiden (Arch Anat Physiol Wiss Med (J Mu ¨ller) 1838:137–176, 1838) and Schwann (Mikroscopische Untersuchungen u ¨ber die U ¨ bereinstimmung in der Struktur und dem Wachstum des Tiere und Pflanzen. W Engelmann: Leipzig No 176, 1839), which recognized the cell as the primary unit of all living organisms. The concept of cellular totipotency, which was inherent in the Cell Theory and forms the basis of plant biotechnology, was further elaborated by Haberlandt (Sitzungsber K Preuss Akad Wiss Wien, Math-Naturwiss 111:69–92, 1902), who predicted the production of somatic embryos from vegetative cells. This brief historical account traces the development of technologies for the culture, regeneration and transformation of plants that led to the production of transgenic crops which have become central to the many applications of plant biotechnology, and cele- brates the pioneering men and women whose trend- setting contributions made it all possible. Keywords Cell theory Á Genetic transformation Á Plant regeneration Á Totipotency Á Transgenic crops Plant biotechnology is founded on the demonstrated totipotency of plant cells, combined with the deliv- ery, stable integration, and expression of transgenes in plant cells, the regeneration of transformed plants, and the Mendelian transmission of transgenes to the progeny. The concept of totipotency itself is inherent in the Cell Theory of Schleiden (1838) and Schwann (1839), which forms the basis of modern biology by recognizing the cell as the primary unit of all living organisms. The Cell Theory received much impetus from the famous aphorism of Virchow (1858), ‘‘Omnis cellula a cellula’’ (All cells arise from cells), and by the very prescient observation of Vo ¨chting (1878) that the whole plant body can be built up from ever so small fragments of plant organs. However, no sustained attempts were made to test the validity of these observations until the beginning of the 20th century because the required technologies did not exist and the nutritional requirements of cultured cells were not fully understood (see Gautheret 1985). Haberlandt (1902) was the first to conduct experi- ments designed to demonstrate totipotency of plant cells by culturing isolated leaf cells in diluted Knop’s (1865) nutrient solution. He failed largely because of the poor choice of experimental materials (even now, more than 100 years later, there are only rare instances where intact leaf cells have been cultured Opening Plenary Address delivered at the international conference on ‘‘Plants for Human Health in the Post-Genome Era’’, held August 26–29, 2007, in Helsinki, Finland. I. K. Vasil (&) University of Florida, Box 110690, Gainesville, FL 32611-0690, USA e-mail: ivasil@ufl.edu 123 Phytochem Rev (2008) 7:387–394 DOI 10.1007/s11101-007-9075-z