Genetic Engineering Peanut for Higher Drought- and Salt-Tolerance

Abstract

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is one of the major oilseed crops, mainly grown in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. It is also rich in proteins, vitamins and ions, therefore it constitutes an important portion of food nutrition for people in these regions. The production of peanut is being threatened by the changing environments as the major peanut producing counties such as China, India, and USA are facing severe water shortage for peanut irrigation. The yield and quality of peanut are negatively affected by drought and salinity. Making peanut more droughtand salt-tolerant will likely sustain peanut production in countries where water shortage or saline soil are already problems. Efforts were made to genetically engineer peanut for higher tolerance to drought and salt. Analysis of these transgenic peanut plants indicated that the agronomic traits such as peanut yields were the same between wild-type and transgenic peanut plants under normal growth conditions, yet the yields of transgenic peanut plants were much higher than wild-type peanut plant under reduced irrigation conditions. Other traits such as protein content and fatty acid compositions in the seeds of transgenic peanut plants were not altered under both normal and drought conditions, indicating that the genetic manipulation of peanut for stress tolerance did not affect chemical compositions of peanut seeds in transgenic peanut plants, only increased seed yields under stress conditions.