Genetic Engineering Strategies for Biotic Stress Tolerance in Plants

Abstract

Crop plants are exposed to a plethora of biotic and abiotic stresses. Biotic stresses such as pathogens (viruses, bacteria and fungi), insect pests, nematode parasites and weeds cause a signifi cant loss of crop yield and quality. Although conventional strategies like breeding for resistant varieties and agrochemicals and biocontrol agents for control of diseases and pests have been in use for a long time, these have been met with limited success. During the last 10 years, technological advancements in genetic engineering have led to the development of transgenic crop varieties resistant to various biotic stresses. A large number of transgenic crops have been developed and more are underway; however, the number of biotech crops reaching the fi eld from labs is still limited. Transgenic crops developed against insect resistance and/or herbicide tolerance have been commercial success stories, an example being Bt cotton.

Plant tissue culture environment as a switch-key of (epi)genetic changes

“…They are extensively used in studies on plant developmental processes (Firn et al 1994), gene functioning (Deng et al 2010), micropropagation (Kumar and Redd 2011) and generation of transgenic plants with specific industrial and agronomical traits (Loyola-Vargas and Ochoa-Alejo 2018). Therefore, PTC may impact in crop improvement and plant breeding by elimination of viruses for healthy plant material (Perotto et al 2009;Taşkın et al 2013), by preservation of germplasm of vegetatively propagated plant crops (Rajasekharan and Sahijram 2015) and by threatened or endangered plant species rescue (Sarasan et al 2006). The plant in vitro cultures are of interest for the production of secondary metabolites of commercial interest (Loyola-Vargas and Ochoa-Alejo 2018).…”