SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Hortic.
Sec. Floriculture and Landscapes
This article is part of the Research TopicProduction And Breeding Of Ornamental Plants: Technical And Applied ResearchView all 3 articles
Designing Future Ornamental Plants: An Integrated Roadmap for Precision Biotechnology
Provisionally accepted
- 1Environmental Horticulture Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, United States
- 2Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, Rupnagar, India
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The global floriculture industry, a multi-billion-dollar enterprise driven by consumer demand for novelty and confronting urgent pressures for greater sustainability, is at a transformative inflection point. While conventional breeding has been successful, it is often slow and constrained by the genetic limitations of sexual compatibility and the inherent biology of target species. The advent of precise genome editing (GE) technologies, particularly the CRISPR-Cas system, offers an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate ornamental improvement. This literature-based review examines the immense potential of an expanded genomic toolbox—including base, prime, and epigenetic editing, as well as synthetic biology— to rationally design complex traits such as vibrant color, enhanced fragrance, extended vase life, and stress resilience. However, a significant "transfer gap" persists between major agronomic crops and ornamental species. The path from laboratory innovation to commercial reality is impeded by formidable challenges: many elite cultivars possess highly heterozygous and polyploid genomes, which complicates gene targeting, while a widespread dependency on recalcitrant, genotype-specific tissue culture systems creates a critical bottleneck for transformation. Here, a critical analysis is presented regarding these biological hurdles and the equally complex non-technical maze of intellectual property, fragmented global regulations, and public perception. It is argued that ornamental plants, as non-food crops, represent an ideal platform for pioneering rational, product-based regulatory frameworks and fostering societal acceptance. The article concludes with a call for a new, interdisciplinary paradigm that unites plant scientists with engineers, computational biologists, and social scientists. This integrated roadmap, focused on building a comprehensive "genome-to-phenome" data ecosystem and redefining the value of ornamentals beyond aesthetics to include tangible ecosystem services, is essential to co-create a scientifically sound and socially robust future for ornamental biotechnology.
Keywords: CRISPR, Epigenetic editing, Floriculture, Genome editing, Ornamental Biotechnology, plant architecture, plant regeneration, Polyploidy
Received: 29 Oct 2025; Accepted: 23 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Mosoh and Vendrame. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dexter Achu Mosoh
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.