Turbocharging fundamental science translation through controlled environment agriculture

Alison R Gill; Troy K Miller; Samalka Wijeweera; Eva Herrero; Gioia D Massa; Jenny C Mortimer; Alex A R Webb; A Harvey Millar; Matthew Gilliham

doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2025.08.014

Turbocharging fundamental science translation through controlled environment agriculture

Trends Plant Sci. 2025 Sep 30:S1360-1385(25)00254-7. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2025.08.014. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Alison R Gill¹, Troy K Miller², Samalka Wijeweera², Eva Herrero³, Gioia D Massa⁴, Jenny C Mortimer⁵, Alex A R Webb³, A Harvey Millar², Matthew Gilliham⁶

Affiliations

¹ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space; School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, and the Waite Research Institute, Adelaide University, Urrbrae, South Australia, Australia. Electronic address: alison.gill@adelaide.edu.au.
² Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space; Centre for Plant Energy Biology and School of Molecular Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia.
³ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space; Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁴ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space; NASA, Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA.
⁵ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space; School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, and the Waite Research Institute, Adelaide University, Urrbrae, South Australia, Australia; Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁶ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space; School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, and the Waite Research Institute, Adelaide University, Urrbrae, South Australia, Australia. Electronic address: matthew.gilliham@adelaide.edu.au.

PMID: 41033905
DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2025.08.014

Abstract

Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) provides unprecedented opportunities to accelerate the translation of plant science breakthroughs into agricultural impact. By precisely controlling growth conditions, CEA enables the reliable and tightly regulated deployment of beneficial optimized traits by integrating emerging breeding, genomic, and synthetic biology tools. In this review we highlight both the progress and the remaining challenges enabled by CEA to reimagine crop design, including enhanced photosynthesis that operates independently of seasonal and circadian limitations, improvements in resource and metabolic efficiency, customized plant architecture, and the reliable, controllable production of high-value compounds. These capabilities position CEA as both a versatile research platform and an efficient, high-yielding production system, bridging fundamental discoveries with real-world crop outcomes to support sustainable, climate-resilient agriculture into the future.

Keywords: CEA; controlled environment agriculture; plant genetics; plant metabolism; plant physiology; synthetic biology.

Publication types

Review