Molecular genetic approaches for environmental stress tolerant crop plants: Progress and prospects

Global food security is threatened by the severe environmental conditions that have reduced the worldwide crop yield. Plants possess inherent mechanisms to cope with the initial stress phase but to ensure their survival through harsh climate, the intervention of genetic engineering is desirable. Elucidation of genetic loci and deciphering the underlying mechanisms that confer tolerance to plants against stressful conditions followed by its successful introgression into elite, high-yielding crop varieties can be an effective way to engineer the crops for increasing productivity. This review provides an overview about the effects of abiotic and biotic stresses on crop plants and the use of genetic engineering approach to cope with these environmental stresses for a sustainable agriculture. Major patents in the field of plant stress tolerance in the last five years have also been summarized.