Abiotic stress tolerant transgenics in the days of genomics and proteomics

Abstract

J. Watson and F.C. Crick gave the famous double helix model of DNA structure almost fifty years ago. The science of molecular biology has made tremendous progress ever since. Transgenic research is making ripples all over the globe since 1980s. 1990 onwards, genomics wave that aims at determining nucleotide sequence of all the genes in an organism, has swept the shores of molecular biology science. Now is the time to characterize how each and every gene functions through the burgeoning science of proteomics. Plant abiotic stress research has been greatly benefited by these developments. A large number of genes and proteins that mediate plant abiotic stress responses have been identified. However, it has also been felt that a vast network of control mechanisms mediates the stress responses and the unveiling of this complexity can alone give us complete understanding of the mechanisms of stress tolerance. While there are a large number of reports showing production of abiotic stress tolerant transgenics, none of the abiotic stress tolerant transgenic plants has come close to field-trials. Future lies in more basic discoveries so that laboratory-results can be subjected to field-evaluations. In this article, we discuss how the modern genomics and proteomics sciences can help in identifying genes important for tolerance to abiotic stresses.