Chapter 21 - Genetic modification and genome engineering of plants for adverse environmental pollution

Abstract

Environmental pollution is proved to be a major threat and their effects have various effects on living organisms including risks in plants. In most cases, pollutants change the plant growth, development, physiological, biochemical and metabolic, defense, and immunity pathways. Pollutants are present in different forms which are harmful to plants and impair proper functioning. Most of the time pollutions alter the plant metabolism and plant become weak and susceptible to disease and pest invasion. Noticeable signs of this alteration include leaf damage, poor growth, root damage, and incapable to photosynthesis well and produced food which results in stunted growth and decrease productivity. Several plant health measures have been put forward to control, prevent, and treat pollution occurring in the environment. So, in this chapter discuss the effect of various types of environmental pollution on plant growth, development, physiological, metabolic performance, and their solution like genetic modification, transgenic, bioengineered, genetic engineering techniques, known as gene editing technique represent the innovative method of genome manipulation and their role that next generation of GM plants in preventing and reducing the chemical contamination and pollution effects and outlines the potential of genetic modification for initiative climate-resilient farming.