Role of Transgenic Plants in Abiotic Stress Management

Abstract

ABSTRACT Soil salinity is a constant problem that hinders crop productivity worldwide. The problem is fast taking gargantuan proportions with constant population pressures on land, especially in developing countries. Availability of cultivable land is soon going to be a major problem in these countries. One of the most appropriate courses of action to combat this problem is to engineer crops that are salt tolerant. Genetic engineering should be preferred over breeding as the latter method is time consuming. The techniques to engineer crops are fast becoming relatively easy and routine. The genes for this purpose are also being identified rapidly. Clearly the most suitable genes for engineering salinity stress tolerance will be the ones that lead to production of molecules that are effective in minimal concentrations and that do not exert undue pressures on the plant metabolic pathways so as not to adversely affect their yield. Such molecules are now being identified. Various transcription factors that sho...