Abstract
Recent breakthroughs in in vitro culturing of plant cell tissue have helped to overcome the challenges that face important economic and medicinal plant species. Micropropagation and encapsulation techniques have been combined to develop a new tool, known as "synseed," which has the advantages of both technologies. Synseeds or artificial seeds are alginate encapsulated somatic embryos, vegetative buds, or any other micropropagules that can be used as seeds and germinated into plantlets after propagating under in vitro or in vivo conditions and that can also sustain the regeneration potential after low temperature storage. Encapsulated propagules may be used for germplasm preservation of elite plant species and exchange of plant materials between national and international laboratories. In addition, the technology has been successfully utilized for cryopreservation via encapsulation-dehydration, and encapsulation-vitrification for the germplasm storage of elite plant species. In this paper, we provide updated and comprehensive information on synseed technology, with a particular focus on the importance of explant selection for successful synseed production and on the matrices used as an encapsulation material for synseeds. Furthermore, the limiting factors that hinder the progress of synseed technology and related future perspectives are also discussed.