Promises and pitfalls of synthetic chromosomes in plants

• Minichromosomes in plants can be synthesized by telomere-mediated truncation.
• Transgenes can be added to minichromosomes upon their formation.
• The epigenetic nature of centromeres precludes their use for plant synthetic chromosomes.
• Engineered minichromosomes have the potential to stack numerous genes of interest.

This review summarizes synthetic chromosome construction in plants and speculates on how they might be applied to various uses in the future, as well as the possible impact for synthetic biology. The procedures to construct foundational platforms for synthetic chromosomes in plants are described, together with some challenges to be overcome in growing such chromosomes and expanding their applications.