Physiological Manipulation of Plants for Crop Improvement Through Biotechnology

Abstract

The increasing population, changing environment, decreasing agricultural land, and disturbances in the food chain are the major threats to food security. Crop production through conventional methods poses a challenge to meet the food demand of the growing population. Therefore, the inclusion of biotechnological approaches for manipulating the physiological function of plants can play an important role in meeting the food demand. A higher yield can be attained as a result of genetic alterations aimed at improving characteristics, including photosynthetic efficiency, nutrient utilization, and stress tolerance. Understanding the intricacies of photosynthesis is crucial for crop improvement through biotechnological methods. 228 Focusing on genes related to light absorption, carbon fixation, and sugar synthesis, plants with higher biomass and enhanced photosynthetic efficiency can be developed. Biotic and abiotic stress are also responsible for reducing the crop yield. The introduction of genes that have been identified to be associated with such stress resistance into the plant genome can protect the crop, thereby producing a higher yield. Climate change is a serious issue throughout the world, affecting the water availability for plants and also the pathogenic population. Integration of stress-responsive genes, such as GTL1 and MYB96 is used to increase the water use efficiency ensuring plant growth and productivity under water stress conditions. Technologies, such as RNAi and transgenic crops are shown to develop crops with increased resistance to the prevailing biotic stress, protecting the economic loss. Advanced gene editing technologies, like CRISPR-Cas9 and TALEN allow modification of targeted gene sequences providing an opportunity to develop varieties having attractive traits, like higher yield, stress tolerance, and higher nutritional content. Genes like SlERF4 in tomato and ZmCLA4 in maize have been targeted to develop resistance against biotic stress using CRISPR-Cas9 and TALEN approach. Thus, understanding and implication of these biotechnological approaches in agriculture can provide a better solution to different complications for overall crop improvement.