Modern plant biotechnology as a strategy in addressing climate change and attaining food security

Abstract

Global warming causes a range of negative impacts on plants especially due to rapid changes in temperatures, alterations of rainfall patterns, floods or drought conditions, and outbreaks of pests and diseases. These, in turn, affect crop production reducing the quality and quantity of agricultural produce. Climatic extremes and high population growth significantly increase the world’s food demand. Therefore, fulfilling the goal of attaining food security for the present and future generations is of prime importance. Biotechnology enables creating dramatic alterations on crops to withstand stress which is difficult to attain using conventional breeding approaches. It is a viable tool used to improve agricultural production. The development of biotechnological approaches such as genetic engineering, genome editing, RNA-mediated gene silencing armored with next-generation sequencing, and genome mapping have paved the way for precise and faster genetic modifications of plants. Such intensive efforts are currently underway creating desirable crop cultivars to meet the food demand and to support sustainable agricultural productivity for climate change adaptation.

Food Security: 3D Dynamic Display and Early Warning Platform Construction and Security Strategy

“…By constructing a 3D dynamic display and early warning platform for food security, we can intuitively understand the real-time situation of food, which is of great significance in promoting the development of agriculture [ 65 , 66 ]. Ensuring food security is the foundation of economic development and social stability.…”

Reproductive-Stage Heat Stress in Cereals: Impact, Plant Responses and Strategies for Tolerance Improvement

“…Transgenic approaches facilitate the transfer of desirable traits/genes to elite cultivars, bypassing the linkage drag obstacle, involving co-transference of unsolicited adjacent gene segments, and enabling the exploitation of genes not accessible via hybridization-based breeding [161,165]. Recombinant DNA technology permits for intra-species or inter-species transfer of genes/traits, thereby enabling the harnessing of superior traits both from improved cultivars or wild types.…”

“…Recombinant DNA technology permits for intra-species or inter-species transfer of genes/traits, thereby enabling the harnessing of superior traits both from improved cultivars or wild types. This is largely underpinned by Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation because of its ability to transfer larger DNA fragments, its reproducibility, and simple operation amenability [165,166]. Consequently, several genes or proteins, including TFs, HSPs, antioxidant enzymes, etc., have been successfully cloned, and their OE enhanced HS tolerance in different cereals, including maize, rice, wheat, etc.…”

Cleome gynandra: A wonder climate-smart plant for nutritional security for millions in semi-arid areas

“…It has been estimated that nutrition and food security of about 70% of people in Africa, Asia and Asia-Pacific will be negatively affected due to persistent climate change (SADC, 2020a). Therefore, an adaptation of climate-smart agriculture will safeguard a sustainable increase in crop productivity to meet the pervasive food demand (Munaweera et al, 2022). The use of locally available, underutilised crops such as C. gynandra can provide diverse sustainable and healthy diets, while at the same time contributing to climate change mitigation strategies (Bvenura and Afolayan, 2015).…”

“…As such, improving crops by using new breeding techniques is on the rise globally. These precise and faster genetic crop modifications have been made with ease due to development of biotechnological approaches such as genome editing, genetic engineering and genome mapping (Munaweera et al, 2022). According to Khew et al (2022), two approaches that are gaining prominence in the fields of molecular biology and plant breeding due to their precision and efficiency include marker-assisted selection (MAS) and genome editing (GE).…”