Breeding and Transgenic Approaches for Development of Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Rice

Abstract

Abiotic stresses such as drought, salt, heat, and cold are serious threats to the sustainability of rice yield. As rice is considered one of the major food crops, the development of enhanced abiotic stress tolerance using breeding and transgenic approaches will undoubtedly have a serious impact on global food security. Significant genetic variation in rice germplasm for resistance/tolerance to abiotic stresses makes plant breeding as a viable option of stress tolerance development. Though high-yielding rice cultivars with enhanced tolerance to abiotic stresses have been released, the progress made by conventional breeding was considerably slow due to multigenic nature of the traits and other associated problems. Biotechnology tools like molecular breeding and genetic engineering have accelerated the efforts of developing abiotic stress-tolerant crops. Further, the progress in identification of new genes and QTLs involved in abiotic stress response has supplemented the breeding and transgenic approaches of stress tolerance. The transgenic approach offers an alternative to breeding approaches for the genetic improvement of rice germplasm. In recent years, a number of stress-related genes have been identified and transferred in rice to improve its tolerance against abiotic stresses. Several transgenic rice lines with enhanced abiotic stress tolerance have been generated and evaluated. This chapter highlights the updates of breeding and transgenic approaches for the development of abiotic stress tolerance in rice with illustrations from research targeted at drought, salinity, heat, cold, and submergence.