Abstract
Increasing global population, urbanization and industrialization are increasing the rate of conversion of arable land into wasteland. Supplying food to an ever-increasing population is one of the biggest challenges that agriculturalists and plant scientists are currently confronting. Environmental stresses make this situation even graver. Despite the induction of several tolerance mechanisms, sensitive plants often fail to survive under environmental extremes. New technological approaches are imperative. Conventional breeding methods have a limited potential to improve plant genomes against environmental stress. Recently, genetic engineering has contributed enormously to the development of genetically modified varieties of different crops such as cotton, maize, rice, canola and soybean. The identification of stress-responsive genes and their subsequent introgression or overexpression within sensitive crop species are now being widely carried out by plant scientists. Engineering of important tolerance pathways, like antioxidant enzymes, osmolyte accumulation, membrane-localized transporters for efficient compartmentation of deleterious ions and accumulation of essential elements and resistance against pests or pathogens is also an area that has been intensively researched. In this review, the role of biotechnology and its successes, prospects and challenges in developing stress-tolerant crop cultivars are discussed.
Highlights
The transgenic approach has emerged as an important tool to adapt crops to rapidly changing environmental conditions
The primary step before proceeding with transgenics is the identification of genes serving as key regulators of different metabolic pathways, including osmolyte synthesis, ion homeostasis through selective ion uptake, antioxidant defence system and other frontline defence pathways (Ahmad et al 2012)
We summarize stress-responsive genes and their subsequent introgression or overexpression within other crop species
Summary
The transgenic approach has emerged as an important tool to adapt crops to rapidly changing environmental conditions. The advancement in transgenic approaches (individual or combination) could be a successful means to promote phytoextraction of toxic metalloids (Se and As) and metals, Cu, Pb and Cd in the aboveground plant organs and to promote tissue up-take involving metal transporters, high production of enzymes and the production of metal-detoxifying chelators including PCs and MTs. Advances in the mechanistic basis of a transgenic approach would help provide a better understanding of the genetic basis of resistance or tolerance and hyperaccumulation of metals and metalloids, means of translocation and other environmental factors influencing phytoremediation, because these all hinder its implementation
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