Protoplast Fusion for Cellular Engineering of the Brassicaceae

The members of the Brassicaceae family are important oilseed, vegetable and forage crops. The Brassicaceae species are also used for phytoremediation of heavy metal polluted soils, as siderates or ornamental plants. The widening of biodiversity of already existent Brassicaceae cultivars by genetic engineering manipulations can increase tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, increase plant productivity and production quality. Protoplast fusion method makes possible artificial synthesis of various somatic hybrids between different plant species. The review presents advances in protoplast fusion of Brassica crops and their wild relatives; main directions of somatic hybridisation in Brassicaceae; the conditions for obtaining and selection of the somatic hybrids; the peculiarities of genetic material inheritance, introgression of economically important traits by somatic hybridization to cultivated Brassicaceae, resynthesis of allotetraploid species; production of cytoplasmic male-sterile (CMS) alloplasmic lines, creation of somatic hybrids for phytoremediation of soils contaminated with heavy metals, and production of transplastomic plants by transfer of genetically modified plastids through protoplast fusion.