Are GM Crops for Yield and Resilience Possible?

Abstract

Crop yield improvements need to accelerate to avoid future food insecurity. Outside Europe, genetically modified (GM) crops for herbicide- and insect-resistance have been transformative in agriculture; other traits have also come to market. However, GM of yield potential and stress resilience has yet to impact on food security. Genes have been identified for yield such as grain number, size, leaf growth, resource allocation, and signaling for drought tolerance, but there is only one commercialized drought-tolerant GM variety. For GM and genome editing to impact on yield and resilience there is a need to understand yield-determining processes in a cell and developmental context combined with evaluation in the grower environment. We highlight a sugar signaling mechanism as a paradigm for this approach.

Is the Application of Plant Probiotic Bacterial Consortia Always Beneficial for Plants? Exploring Synergies between Rhizobial and Non-Rhizobial Bacteria and Their Effects on Agro-Economically Valuable Crops

“…Interestingly, the area harvested and the land area dedicated to major crops did not increase during the 2006-2016 period. These facts may suggest that the increase in crop production was related mostly to the application of fertilizers, although there are other factors to consider that might have contributed, such as the use of crop varieties with improved features (use of stress-tolerant varieties and/or naturally adapted or genetically modified (GMO) crops, amongst others) [8][9][10].…”

Risk-Only Assessment of Genetically Engineered Crops Is Risky

“…More recently, drought-tolerance traits allow crops to use water more effectively. These traits replace or augment insecticides and fungicides, crop-selective herbicides, and irrigation, respectively [67]. By protecting yield, fewer hectares of cropland are required to produce the same amount of crop, thereby reducing the amount of native habitat that must be converted to farmland to support the human demand for food, feed, and fiber.…”

Investigating the In Vitro Regeneration Potential of Commercial Cultivars of Brassica

“…The introduction of transgenes into plants to engineer useful novel traits may seem trivial now [8], but it has its own challenges and limitations [9][10][11][12]. For example, a plant species must be responsive to in vitro regeneration protocols, and a robust regeneration system is one of the key pre-requisites for successful genetic transformation.…”