Plant Biotechnology involves manipulation of genetic material to develop better 
crops. Keeping in view the challenges being faced by humanity in terms of 
shortage of food and other resources, we need to continuously upgrade the 
genomic technologies and fine tune the existing methods. For efficient genetic 
transformation, Agrobacterium-mediated as well as direct delivery methods have 
been used successfully. However, these methods suffer from many disadvantages 
especially in terms of transfer of large genes, gene complexes and gene 
silencing. To overcome these problems, recently, some efforts have been made to 
develop genetic transformation systems based on engineered plant chromosomes 
called minichromosomes or plant artificial chromosomes. Two approaches namely, 
"top-down" or "bottom-up" have been used for minichromosomes. The former 
involves engineering of the existing chromosomes within a cell and the latter de 
novo assembling of chromosomes from the basic constituents. While some success 
has been achieved using these chromosomes as vectors for genetic transformation 
in maize, however, more studies are needed to extend this technology to crop 
plants. The present review attempts to trace the genesis of minichromosomes and 
discusses their potential of development into plant artificial chromosome 
vectors. The use of these vectors in genetic transformation will greatly 
ameliorate the food problem and help to achieve the UN Millennium development 
goals.