Progress in the Improvement of Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants Using Transgenic Approaches

Abstract

Abstract:

Abiotic stresses including drought are serious threats to the sustainability of crop yields. Use of modern molecular biologytools for elucidating the control mechanisms of abiotic stress tolerance, and for engineering stress tolerant crops is based on the expression ofspecific stress-related genes. Hence, genetic engineering for developing stress tolerant plants, based on the introgression of genes that are knownto be involved in stress response and putative tolerance, might prove to be a faster track towards improving crop varieties. Nevertheless, thetask of generating transgenic cultivars is not only limited to the success in the transformation process, but also proper incorporation of the stresstolerance. Evaluation of the transgenic plants under stress conditions, and understanding the physiological effect of the inserted genes at thewhole plant level remain as major challenges to overcome. This review focuses on the progress in using transgenic technology for the improvementof abiotic stress tolerance in plants. This includes discussion on the evaluation of abiotic stress response and the protocols for testing thetransgenic plants for their tolerance under close to field conditions.

Key words: Abiotic stress , Drought tolerance , Genetic engineering , Transcription factors , Transpiration efficiency

Liu Chun, Cao Limin, Li Yuzhong, Peng Wanxia, Ma Hao. Progress in the Improvement of Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants Using Transgenic Approaches[J]. Biotechnology Bulletin, 2013, 0(1): 16-24.

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