Date of Publication :21st December 2017

Abstract: Climate change is a multifaceted phenomenon with a wide range of impacts on the environment. Currently, with the competing uses of land and the growing world population, we are challenged to produce more in less area with diminishing resources, confronted with climate change and the unpredictable local microclimate adversely affecting crop productivity. Biotic and abiotic stress is a result of climate change. Abiotic stresses will remain a challenge to the natural environment and agriculture. The challenges before us in plant biology and crop improvement are to integrate the systems level information on abiotic stress response pathways, identify stress protective networks, and engineer environmentally stable crops that yield more. Plants evolve defense mechanisms to withstand these stresses, e.g. antioxidants and antioxidant enzymes. In the present study, two different antioxidant enzymes namely copper-zinc superoxide dismutase derived from Potentilla astrisanguinea (Cu-Zn/SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) from Rheum austral both of which are high altitude cold niche area plants of Western Himalaya were cloned and simultaneously over-expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana to alleviate salt stress. It was found that the transgenic plants overexpressing both the genes were more tolerant to salt stress than either of the single gene expressing transgenic plants during growth and development. Further, transcriptomic analysis showed that most of the genes related to secondary metabolite production and phytohormones were overexpressed in transgenic lines under stress conditions. Thus, genetically engineered plants or biotech crops can contribute significantly both to sustainability and for the mitigation of the arduous challenges associated with possible climate change and global warming.

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