Current Developments in Biotechnology and Bioengineering

Crop Modification, Nutrition, and Food Production

Suresh Kumar Dubey, Ashok Pandey, Rajender Singh Sangwan, Suresh Kumar Dubey, Ashok Pandey, Rajender Singh Sangwan

• Publisher: Elsevier
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780444636720
• Topic: Scienze biologiche
• Subtopic: Biotecnologia

Current Developments in Biotechnology and Bioengineering: Crop Modification, Nutrition, and Food Production provides extensive coverage of new developments, state-of-the-art technologies, and potential future trends, presenting data-based scientific knowledge on agribiotechnology and describing world agriculture and the role biotechnology can play in ensuring food security over the next fifty years.

The book discusses the effects of climate change in agriculture and the resultant emergence of new crops, including drought tolerant and more nutritious plants. In addition, the book discusses insect and virus resistance in plants and outlines plant metabolic engineering for agriculture, genetically engineered plants, and microbial diseases.

• Highlights recent developments in agriculture due to biotechnology
• Relates the effect of climate change in agriculture to the development of new crops
• Describes the application of metabolic engineering in the development of new genetically modified plants

1

World Agriculture and Impact of Biotechnology

J. Pathak, Rajneesh, A. Pandey, Shailendra P. Singh, and R.P. Sinha^∗ Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India

Abstract

Global agriculture is facing a serious threat from climate change, which may result in reduced productivity. Increasing food prices and greater global food insecurity are the outcomes of decreased productivity, and the persistence of such conditions may lead to a further increase in food prices, which could lead to social unrest and famine in certain instances. To ensure continued food security for an increasing global population, we must focus on improving crop productivity by exploiting new genetic sequencing and advanced “genomic breeding” and proteomics technologies. These technologies hold promise for crop improvement by developing crop species for particular environmental conditions. These technologies also allow plant breeders to target new crop species and traits effectively and simultaneously, such as resilience, quality, and yield, which are crucial to food security. Molecular breeding has a crucial role in improving crops. Although genetically modified (GM) crops hold good promise in enhancing crop productivity, GM crops face several challenges in agricultural growth, development, and sustainability. In this chapter, we discuss advances in the field of agriculture using advanced tools of biotechnology.

Keywords

Agriculture; Crop productivity; Genetically modified organisms; Genomics; Proteomics; Sequencing

1.1. Introduction

Unprecedented increases in the world's population has led to competing demands for the production of food, fodder, and essential ecosystem services which are necessary for the sustenance of life [1]. By 2050 the world population is expected to pass 9 billion, with food security as a major global challenge [2]. The Food and Agriculture Organization [3] defines food security as having “physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food, for an active and healthy life.” Improvement in crop productivity with the aid of new genetic sequencing and advanced “omics” technologies along with conventional breeding practices is required to ensure continued food security because conventional breeding techniques alone cannot fulfill the future food demand for an increasing population size [1,4,5]. Hence, plant breeding techniques should focus on traits that have maximum potential yield under continuously changing climatic conditions. Food security can be enhanced by diversifying agriculture, by domesticating and using a larger number of plants species [6]. Mining the gene pools of crop wild relatives (CWRs) could increase the diversity of alleles available to breeders.

Genome analysis in wild plant populations may lead to the discovery of novel genetic resources [7]. Adaptive genes are promising for improving crop productivity under specific environmental conditions, and such genes could be revealed by high-throughput genome-scale genotyping [8]. Advances in plant genomics have resulted in a better understanding of crop diversity at species and gene levels and offer DNA markers which are of great importance in genetic improvement [9,10]. Therefore, genomics could be a potential tool to address the challenge of increasing food quality and yield in a sustainable manner through advanced breeding techniques [11]. Genomics-assisted breeding is predicted to have a crucial role in the development of crops which are resilient to climate change [11]. Knowledge of genomics could be used further to identify and transfer agronomically valuable genes from allied gene pools and crop relatives to elite crops, and hence could potentially assist in meeting the global food demand. Exons assist in interpretation of allelic variation with respect to their phenotype, and phenotypic traits could be revealed by exome sequencing which could serve as a significant tool for better crop production [12]. Exposure to abiotic and biotic stressors induces various stress-related responses in plants accompanied by the development of stress-specific adaptations and/or acclimations. A proteomics approach offers an excellent tool for studying plant response under fluctuating environmental conditions and can be useful for identifying and functionally characterizing novel protein(s) involved in the amelioration of different stressors [13]. The abundance of proteins primarily associated with defense mechanisms determines the efficiency of stress-specific responses in plants, which involves alterations in resource allocations for various purposes, including biomass production.

The development of genetically modified (GM) crops is another example of the use of biotechnology to enhance productivity and/or resistance to various abiotic and/or biotic stressors. However, application of GM crops to increase global food production is still a matter of global debate, and therefore pros and cons of GM crops need to be analyzed before their commercialization [14]. GM technology is an opportunity to make high profits for the industry sector and it can also act as a sustainable tool to increase crop productivity. However, whether GM crops can contribute to agricultural growth, agricultural development, and agricultural sustainability still needs to be answered. Therefore, an integrated approach of conventional breeding, the application of biotechnology, genomics, proteomics, and genetic engineering could provide a sustainable solution to the problem of global food security. In this chapter we discuss the potential role of biotechnology in enhancing crop productivity and the development of sustainable agriculture with particular emphasis on genomics, proteomics, and GM crops.

1.2. Impact of Whole-Genome Sequencing and Genomic Approach on Agriculture

An effective crop breeding program is the most crucial requirement to meet the ever-increasing global food demand and counter the potential adverse impacts of climate change [15,16]. Information from various genome studies can be used to detect novel structural variations, decode novel/exotic alleles from wider gene pools, retrieve lost genetic diversity, and resolve complex quantitative traits [17]. Genetic improvements of crops should focus on higher productivity, adaptation to climate resilience, and nutritional value. A key strategy for enhancing crop improvement is the effective use of available genetic resources [6]. In this respect, “genomic breeding” could be an efficient tool to obtain more productive crops in a shorter time, which can be achieved by studying the correlation between the genomic sequence and crop performance under a given environmental condition [18–20]. Comprehensive information on genetic components that control heritable traits can be obtained through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) [18,19,21]. In GWAS, the phylogenetic relatedness of the individual lineages is first determined, followed by identification of causal trait...