Abstract
Metabolic engineering in plant can be describe as a tool using molecular biological technologies which promotes enzymatic reactions that can enhance the biosynthesis of existing compounds such as glycine betaine (GB) in plant species that are able to accumulate GB, or produce news compounds like GB in non-accumulators plants. Moreover we can include to these definition, the mediation in the degradation of diverse compounds in plant organism. For decades, one of the most popular ideas in metabolic engineering literature is the idea that the improvement of gly betaine or melatonin accumulation in plant under environmental stress can be the main window to ameliorate stress tolerance in diverse plant species. A challenging problem in this domain is the integration of different molecular technologies like transgenesis, enzyme kinetics, promoter analysis, biochemistry and genetics, protein sorting, cloning or comparative physiology to reach that objective. A large number of approaches have been developed over the last few decades in metabolic engineering to overcome this problem. Therefore, we examine some previous work and propose some understanding about the use of metabolic engineering in plant stress tolerance. Moreover, this chapter will focus on melatonin (Hormone) and gly betaine (Osmolyte) biosynthesis pathways in engineering stress resistance.
Highlights
The global climate change influence negatively plant growth and development via the increase of the intensity of various abiotic stresses such as drought, chilling, salinity, waterlogging or flooding
Plant by-products including hormone and osmoprotectant that play a prominent roles in plant stress tolerance have been targeting in various plant species to counterattack environmental stresses
Under environmental stresses plant is able to accumulate different molecules such as melatonin or glycine betaine to provide stress tolerance by counteracting with oxidative stress caused by drought, chilling, salinity or heavy metal stresses [7–9]
Summary
The global climate change influence negatively plant growth and development via the increase of the intensity of various abiotic stresses such as drought, chilling, salinity, waterlogging or flooding. Plant metabolism engineering provides successful pathways to increase the production of metabolites that can significantly counterattack the damages caused by diverse abiotic stresses [3]. The over expression of COMT like gene (TaCOMT) in a transgenic Arabidopsis via various metabolic engineering techniques (cloning, transgenesis, genetics or promoter analysis) provided drought tolerance by increasing the concentration of melatonin [27]. Other enzymes such as serotonin N-acetyltransferase (MsSNAT) involve in melatonin biosynthesis have been targeted in rice [28] or Arabidopsis [29] to provide stress tolerance, either to clarify the role of melatonin in plant. This chapter will focus on the use of glycine betaine, spermidine and melatonin in plant metabolism engineering, in stress engineering
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
