Abiotic stress tolerance in grasses. From model plants to crop plants.

摘要

Most cereals (e.g. wheat) are sensitive to a wide range of abiotic stresses (such as extremes in temperature, photon irradiance, and supplies of water and inorganic solutes), and variability in the gene pool generally appears to be relatively small and may provide few opportunities for major step changes in tolerance. Of potentially larger impact on abiotic stress tolerance is the use of genetic engineering technologies to generate such step changes. It is exploitation of this latest resource that, combined with steadily increasing transformation frequencies for many grasses, is making the functional genomics approach to the study and manipulation of abiotic stresses in grasses increasingly tractable. The need to use a model plant such as Arabidopsis thaliana is steadily decreasing, and will continue to do so, as the principles uncovered in this model organism are refined by knowledge gained in the plants that are the ones in which this knowledge needs to be applied. Physiological knowledge may also underpin some early breakthroughs using genetic engineering technologies to increase abiotic stress tolerance in grasses. Examples where such knowledge has led to the development of increased tolerance to abiotic stress in grasses are discussed.