Genetic Engineering and Genome Editing for the Improvement of Fabaceae for Abiotic Stress Tolerance

Abstract

According to the new WMO Global Climate Report (released on March 2019), the years 2015–2018 were the four warmest years on record. Moreover, the alternation of heat waves and drought with the occurrence of extreme events become a challenge for agriculture in forthcoming years. Plants from Fabaceae family are the third largest family of flowering plants and second in economic importance, being cultivated for food and animal feed. They also provide the benefits of nitrogen fixation due to Legume-Rhizobium symbiotic relationship. However, their productivity is limited by different biotic and abiotic constraints, and the improvement of Fabaceae for stress tolerance is an important requirement regarding the future climate scenario. In this chapte we will focus on works related to the genetic engineering and genome editing for the improvement of Fabaceae plants regarding their tolerance to abiotic stresses. As candidates for genetic engineering purposes we can find numerous abiotic stress-related genes (e.g., LEAs, ZIPs, HSPs) and transcriptional factors (e.g., MYBs, ABFs, HSFs); that have been used with some degree of success either in model or other important grain and forage legumes. Recently, considerable research has revealed the active role of micro-RNAs (miRNAs) in many aspects of plant development and in the response to various environmental stress conditions. Some examples of their usage for engineering for abiotic stress tolerance in legumes and their possible future exploitation will be addressed. Finally, we will provide a resume on genome editing techniques related to stress tolerance and discussed forthcoming applications in Fabaceae improvement.