Biotechnologies of Crop Improvement, Volume 2: Transgenic Approaches

498 Pages·2018·8.73 MB·English

by  Satbir Singh Gosal

Satbir Singh Gosal · Shabir Hussain Wani
Editors
Biotechnologies of
Crop Improvement,
Volume 2
Transgenic Approaches
Biotechnologies of Crop Improvement, Volume 2
Satbir Singh Gosal • Shabir Hussain Wani
Editors
Biotechnologies of Crop
Improvement, Volume 2
Transgenic Approaches
Editors
Satbir Singh Gosal Shabir Hussain Wani
School of Agricultural Biotechnology Mountain Research Centre
Punjab Agricultural University for Field Crops, Khudwani
Ludhiana, Punjab, India Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural
Sciences and Technology of Kashmir
Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India
ISBN 978-3-319-90649-2 ISBN 978-3-319-90650-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90650-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018942727
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Professor Paul Christou
Paul Christou obtained his Ph.D. in Organic
Chemistry in 1980 at the University of
London. He subsequently undertook
postdoctoral research (1980–1982) at
University College London in plant
biochemistry with emphasis on the
elucidation of the biosynthetic pathway of a
number of irregular monoterpenoids useful
in the perfumery and flavoring industries. In
1982, he was recruited by one of the first
plant biotechnology companies in the USA,
Agracetus Inc. (Madison, Wisconsin), as
senior scientist with responsibilities for
molecular and cellular plant biology.
vi
At Agracetus, he led a team that developed
the first transgenic staple crop, soybean,
currently being sold by Monsanto. His team
also developed a facile genotype-
independent method for rice transformation.
In 1994, he moved to the John Innes Centre
(JIC), Norwich, UK, as Head of Molecular
Biotechnology Unit and Director of Tropical
Maize and Rice Biotechnology Training
Laboratory funded by the Rockefeller
Foundation, USA. During his tenure at the
JIC, he trained many Ph.D. students and
hosted a number of postdoctoral fellows from
27 different countries in Asia, Africa, and
Central and South America, funded by the
Rockefeller Foundation, to pursue research
in diverse aspects of rice and maize
biotechnology. While at the JIC his team
unraveled underpinning mechanisms
controlling transgenic locus organization in
cereal crops and pioneered a multigene
transformation system useful in plant
metabolic engineering. In 2001, he joined
the Fraunhofer Institute of Molecular
Biotechnology and Applied Ecology
Schmallenberg-Aachen, Germany, as full
professor. While at Fraunhofer he expanded
his research to molecular pharming with
emphasis on the production of recombinant
proteins active against infectious diseases
such as HIV. In 2004, he joined the
University of Lleida, Spain, as an ICREA
professor. He was the founding director of
Agrotecnio Center, Lleida, Spain (2012), a
position he held till 2015. He is currently the
Editor in Chief of Molecular Breeding and
Transgenic Research. He has mentored over
130 graduate students, and he is the senior
vii
author of over 250 scientific publications in
the general area of plant biotechnology. He
was awarded a European Research Council
Advanced Grant (2009–2014) and a
subsequent Proof of Concept Grant, also by
the ERC. He has been a PI in 12 different
EU-funded projects and has participated in 2
projects funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, 1 currently in progress. He has
given over 300 invited, plenary, or keynote
lectures at international meetings. His
current research focuses on metabolic
engineering, genome editing and synthetic
biology in cereals (rice and maize),
production of pharmaceutical
macromolecules in plants, and engineering
novel agronomic traits in crops. He is active
in training and technology transfer for
developing country biotechnology,
intellectual property issues, and regulatory
and biosafety issues of transgenic crops,
focusing on developing countries. He is also
interested in science policy issues and
strategic planning covering the interphase
between fundamental and applied research.
This book is dedicated to Prof. Paul
Christou – A pioneer in particle gun
technology for plant transformation.
Foreword
Agricultural production continues to face many challenges. Major constraints
imposed by biotic and abiotic stresses on crop quality, yield, and productivity in
conjunction with the urgent need to provide healthier and more nutritious food and
animal feed in a durable and sustainable manner constitute one of the grand global
challenges of our times. The challenge is even more severe in regions of the world
which are less able to cope with increasing populations, changes in environmental
and climatic conditions, pollution, and political and social instability. Agriculture
has always been driven by technology. Its efficiency reflects game-changing discov-
eries in biology and new developments in chemistry and engineering. We seek to
increase food, feed, and fiber production while minimizing agriculture’s environ-
mental footprint, and also to develop new products that branch into the chemical,
pharmaceutical, and other industries. A key driver in this transition will be our abil-
ity to control plant metabolism, development, biochemistry, and physiology holisti-
cally, with more precision and predictability. Recent genome editing technologies
are already beginning to make an impact on agriculture and are transforming the
way improved and more resilient crop varieties are, and will continue to be created
in the near future. However, it is important to recognize that older, more mature
technologies still have the potential to play an enormous role in addressing the chal-
lenges agriculture faces. Biotechnologies of Crop Improvement  – Transgenic
Approaches, edited by Drs. Satbir Singh Gosal and Shabir Hussain Wani, provides
an invaluable resource especially for students and younger practitioners who may
be new to the field. The book comprises 16 chapters that address a number of impor-
tant technologies all relying on transgenesis. The introductory chapter is a general
overview of plant transformation methods. The chapter also provides examples of
target traits under development. The subsequent four chapters have the common
theme of gene silencing as a means to improve crops in a number of different ways.
RNA interference and virus-induced gene silencing are being widely used to create
plants which are more tolerant to biotic and abiotic stresses. These technologies
have also been utilized to improve nutritional quality and overall physiology, devel-
opment, and metabolism at the whole plant level. The next two chapters discuss
antifungal plant defensins, small molecules with critical roles in plant immunity and
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x Foreword
recent examples of plants with improved tolerance to salinity and drought. Specific
chapters are devoted to the engineering of disease resistance in rice, an overview of
the state of the art of sugarcane transformation and individual chapters on crops
important for small-scale subsistence farmers such as pulses and millets. Tomato
biotechnology is discussed in a dedicated chapter with emphasis on tolerance to
environmental stresses and improvement of fruit quality traits. Eucalyptus genetic
transformation is discussed in a separate chapter and target traits such as productiv-
ity and quality for fiber production are highlighted. The importance of the enzyme
glutamine synthetase in a number of different aspects of crop improvement is then
discussed. This chapter highlights the importance of this enzyme in overall nitrogen
metabolism in plants and by extension its role in improving nitrogen use efficiency
a paramount challenge in agriculture. Its usefulness in creating new modes of herbi-
cide tolerance in crops is discussed. The authors conclude the chapter by discussing
inconsistent results reported in the literature concerning expression of glutamine
synthase encoding genes in different plants. The penultimate chapter discusses the
role of phytohormones in developing crops tolerant to environmental stresses. It
focuses on underpinning mechanisms responsible for the role of phytohormones in
plant metabolism. The last chapter provides a general historical overview of the
development of transgenic crops, their adoption, and remaining challenges that still
prevent such crops to reach those who need them the most, the small-scale subsis-
tence farmers in the developing world. The last chapter also discusses next-
generation precision engineering technologies using site-specific nucleases.
Paul Christou
University of Lleida
Lleida, Spain
Preface
The combined use of recombinant DNA technology, gene-transfer methods, and
tissue-culture techniques has led to the efficient transformation and production of
transgenic plants in a wide variety of crop plants. In fact, transgenesis has emerged
as an additional tool to carry out single-gene breeding or transgenic breeding of
crops. The transgenic approach provides access to a larger gene pool, as the gene(s)
may come from viruses, bacteria, fungi, insects, animals, human beings, unrelated
plants, and even from chemical synthesis in the laboratory. Unlike conventional
breeding, only the cloned gene(s) of agronomic importance is/are being introduced
without co-transfer of undesirable genes/alleles from the donor parent. The recipi-
ent genotype is least disturbed, which eliminates the need for repeated backcrosses.
Various gene-transfer methods such as Agrobacterium, physicochemical uptake of
DNA, liposome encapsulation, electroporation of protoplast, microinjection, DNA
injection into intact plants, incubation of seeds with DNA, pollen tube pathway,
laser microbeam, electroporation into tissues/embryos, silicon carbide fiber/whis-
kers method, particle bombardment, and “in planta” transformation have been
developed. Using different gene-transfer methods and strategies, transgenics carry-
ing useful agronomic traits have been developed and released for commercial culti-
vation. Attempts are being made to develop transgenic crop varieties resistant to
abiotic stresses, such as drought, low and high temperature, salts, and heavy metals,
and also to develop transgenic varieties possessing better nutrient-use efficiency and
better keeping, nutritional and processing qualities. Genetically modified foods,
such as tomato containing high lycopene, tomato with high flavonols as antioxi-
dants, edible vaccines, are leading examples of genetically engineered crops.
Several genes of agronomic importance have been isolated from various organisms;
cloned and suitable constructs have been developed for plant transformation.
Agrobacterium and “particle gun” methods have been refined and now being used
for genetic transformation of a wide variety of field, fruit, vegetable, forest crops,
and ornamental plant species. Transgenic crops such as maize, cotton, soybean,
potato, tomato, papaya, and rice carrying mainly insect resistance, herbicide resis-
tance, or both are now being commercially grown in several countries.
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