The first transgenes were introduced in a plant genome more than 30 years ago. Since then, the capabilities of the plant scientific community to engineer the genome of plants have progressed at an unparalleled speed. Plant genetic engineering has become a central technology that has dramatically incremented our basic knowledge of plant biology and has enabled the translation of this knowledge into a number of increasingly complex and sophisticated biotechnological applications, which in most cases rely on the simultaneous co-expression of multiple recombinant proteins from different origins. To meet the new challenges of modern plant biotechnology, the plant scientific community has developed a vast arsenal of innovative molecular tools and genome engineering strategies. In this chapter we review a variety of tools, technologies, and strategies developed to transfer and simultaneously co-express multiple transgenes and proteins in a plant host. Their potential advantages, disadvantages, and future prospects are also discussed.
Keywords: Chloroplast transformation; Multigene transfer; Multiprotein expression; Plant biotechnology; Plant transformation.