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Bioengineering for Salinity Tolerance in Plants: State of the Art

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Abstract

Genetic engineering of plants for abiotic stress tolerance is a challenging task because of its multifarious nature. Comprehensive studies for develo** abiotic stress tolerance are in progress, involving genes from different pathways including osmolyte synthesis, ion homeostasis, antioxidative pathways, and regulatory genes. In the last decade, several attempts have been made to substantiate the role of “single-function” gene(s) as well as transcription factor(s) for abiotic stress tolerance. Since, the abiotic stress tolerance is multigenic in nature, therefore, the recent trend is shifting towards genetic transformation of multiple genes or transcription factors. A large number of crop plants are being engineered by abiotic stress tolerant genes and have shown the stress tolerance mostly at laboratory level. This review presents a mechanistic view of different pathways and emphasizes the function of different genes in conferring salt tolerance by genetic engineering approach. It also highlights the details of successes achieved in develo** salt tolerance in plants thus far.

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Abbreviations

CBL:

Calcineurin B-like protein

CIPK:

CBL-interacting protein kinases

NPK1:

Mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase

NDPK2:

Nucleoside diphosphate kinase 2

SAPK4:

Sucrose nonfermenting 1-related protein kinase2 (SnRK2)

AtMEK1:

MAPK kinase

MYB:

Myeloblastoma

NAC:

No apical meristem, ATAF 1,2 and cup-shaped cotyledon

DRE:

Drought responsive element

DBF:

DRE binding factor

DREB:

Drought responsive element binding protein

TPS:

Trehalose-6-phosphate synthase

p5cs:

Δ1-Pyroline-5-carboxylate synthase

codA:

Choline oxidase

BADH:

Betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase

mt1D:

Mannitol-1-phosphate dehydrogenase

P5CR:

P5C reductase

GutD:

Glucitol-6-phosphate dehydrogenase

MIPS:

l-Myo-Inositol-1-phosphate synthase

APX:

Cytosolic ascorbate peroxidase

DHAR:

Dehydroascorbate reductase

MDHAR:

Mono DHAR

SOD:

Superoxide dismutase

ADC:

Arginine decarboxylase

ODC:

Ornithine decarboxylase

SAMDC:

S-Adenosyl methionine decaroboxylase

SPDS:

Spermidine Synthase

NHX-1:

Vacuolar Na+/H+ antiporter

SOS1:

Salt overly sensitive

TsVP:

H+-pyrophosphatase

HKT2:

High efficiency potassium transport

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Acknowledgments

The financial support received from CSIR and DST New Delhi is gratefully acknowledged. Kapil Gupta acknowledges the award of CSIR-SRF.

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  1. Discipline of Marine Biotechnology and Ecology, Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), G.B. Road, Bhavnagar, 364021, Gujarat, India

    Pradeep K. Agarwal, Pushp Sheel Shukla, Kapil Gupta & Bhavanath Jha

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Agarwal, P.K., Shukla, P.S., Gupta, K. et al. Bioengineering for Salinity Tolerance in Plants: State of the Art. Mol Biotechnol 54, 102–123 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12033-012-9538-3

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