Recent advances in understanding and controlling hyperhydricity during plant micropropagation
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Hyperhydricity (historically termed vitrification) remains one of the most frequently reported physiological disorders in plant tissue culture, widely described as a major recurring cause of shoot-quality loss, reduced multiplication rate, and poor post-transplant survival across more than 200 species. This review synthesizes the literature of the last eight years (2018-2026) on the physiological, biochemical, epigenetic, and structural basis of hyperhydricity, and critically evaluates recently reported strategies for its prevention and reversion. Water saturation of the apoplast, driven by imbalanced water potential between explant and gelled or liquid medium, is now recognized as the proximate structural cause, while an ethylene-reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling axis, disrupted nitrogen and mineral metabolism, aquaporin phosphorylation, cell-wall hypolignification, and DNA hypomethylation of ethylene-pathway genes have been identified as interconnected downstream and upstream drivers. Transcriptomic and proteomic studies in Arabidopsis, flax, Dendrobium, oil palm, and Vaccinium species have refined this mechanistic picture. On the control side, this review evaluates medium and gelling-agent optimization, alternative aromatic cytokinins (meta-topolin derivatives), silver nitrate and biogenic silver nanoparticles, polyamines, silicon supplementation, ventilation and forced gas-exchange systems, temporary immersion bioreactors, and physical interventions such as bottom cooling. Emerging spectral-imaging and machine-learning tools for early, non-destructive detection of hyperhydricity are also discussed as a promising direction for precision micropropagation. The review concludes that hyperhydricity control must remain species- and even cultivar-specific, and it proposes a research agenda integrating multi-omics, computer vision, and bioreactor engineering to achieve predictive, rather than reactive, management of this disorder in commercial micropropagation; its scope, search strategy, and limitations are stated explicitly in Sections 1.1 and 8.
Institution: Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University
Language: English
Subfield: Plant Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7213628612