Current systems for plant-based biomaterial production are inefficient
and place unsustainable demands on environmental resources. This work
proposes a novel solution to these shortcomings based on selective
cultivation of tunable plant tissues using scalable, land-free
techniques unconstrained by seasonality, climate, or local resource
availability. By limiting biomass cultivation to only desirable plant
tissues,/ex planta/farming promises to improve yields while reducing
plant waste and competition for arable land. Employing a/Zinnia
elegans/model system, this work provides the first proof-of-concept
demonstration of isolated, tissue-like plant material
production/inĀ vitro/by way of gel-mediated cell culture. Parameters
governing cell development and morphology including hormone
concentrations, medium pH, and initial cell density are optimized and
implemented to demonstrate the tunability of cultured biomaterials at
cellular and macroscopic scales. Targeted deposition of cell-doped,
nutrient-rich gel scaffolds via casting and 3D bioprinting enable
biomaterial growth in near-final form, reducing downstream processing
requirements. These investigations demonstrate the implementation of
plant cell culture in a new application space, propose novel methods for
quantification and evaluation of cell development, and characterize
morphological developments in response to critical culture
parametersā??illustrating the feasibility and potential of the proposed
techniques.

Tunable plant-based materials via inĀ vitro cell culture using a Zinnia
elegans model - ScienceDirect
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