Biotech Updates

Engineering Dehydration-Stress Tolerant Plants

January 5, 2007

A review discussing the progress towards engineering plants with dehydration-stress tolerance has been presented by S. Cherian and colleagues in a paper published by the journal Biologia Plantarum. Dehydration-stress tolerant plants are those that can withstand drought and saline conditions.

The researchers discussed the use of several genes that helped successfully in manipulating dehydration-stress tolerance in plants. Among these are those responsible for the production of osmoprotectants and osmolytes - molecules that maintain water in plant cells. Also reviewed are genes coding for water channel proteins and ion transporters in plant cell membranes.

S. Cherian and colleagues conclude that the use of a multigene approach in engineering abiotic resistant plants would be better than the current single gene approach. They also predict that in the future, stress inducible promoters, RNA interference (RNAi) technology, and transposable elements will help produce better transgenics with abiotic stress resistance.

The abstract, with links for subscribers, can be accessed at http://www.springerlink.com/content/f6122205551620k8/.