Publications of NIPGR Scientists

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://ndkr-library.nipgr.ac.in/handle/123456789/1

Browse

Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.Agronomic traits

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Gene pyramiding in transgenic plant development: Approaches and challenges
    (Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2023) Rajput, Ruchika; Naik, Jogindra; Misra, Prashant; Trivedi, Prabodh Kumar; Pandey, Ashutosh
    Climate change leads to frequent alterations in environmental factors with a reciprocal impact on crop productivity. Over the last few decades, various approaches have been used for producing more stress-tolerant and climate-flexible crops. Genetic engineering is one of the approaches used to modify multiple characters or to improve more than one agronomic trait in plants. These instances simultaneously demand simultaneous genetic manipulation of multiple genes, necessitating stacking or pyramiding of multiple genes as compared to single-gene manipulations, and the genetic engineering of plants using multiple genes is technically challenging. In the last two decades, considerable progress has been made with respect to the development and application of the methods for gene pyramiding in transgenic context. The conventional methods of gene stacking include the crossing of individual transgenic plants, co-transformation using multiple plant expression constructs, transformation with single constructs carrying multiple transgenes as well as with the constructs carrying polycistronic transgenes. These methods have been instrumental for gene stacking in several commercialized crops. The tools of targeted genome editing (ZFN, TALEN, and CRISPR) that carry out precise genetic modifications, have opened new avenues in the area of crop biotechnology for defending plants against various stresses. The present review covers the current status of biotechnological techniques used to combat biotic and abiotic stresses in crop plants and describes multiple associated challenges.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Heterotrimeric Gα subunit regulates plant architecture, organ size and seed weight in the oilseed Brassica juncea
    (Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2020) Kumar, Roshan; Bisht, Naveen C.
    Key message Two BjuGα proteins exhibit conserved GTP-binding and GTP-hydrolysis activities, and function in maintaining overall plant architecture and controlling multiple yield-related traits in the oilseed Brassica juncea. Abstract Heterotrimeric G-protein (Gα, Gβ and Gγ) are key signal transducers, well characterized in model plants Arabidopsis and rice. However, our knowledge about the roles played by G-proteins in regulating various growth and developmental traits in polyploid crops, having a complex G-protein signalling network, is quite sparse. In the present study, two Gα encoding genes (BjuA.Gα1 and BjuB.Gα1) were isolated from the allotetraploid Brassica juncea, a globally cultivated oilseed crop of the Brassicaceae family. BjuGα1 genes share a close evolutionary relationship, and the encoded proteins exhibit highly conserved G-protein activities while showing expression diferentiation, wherein BjuA.Gα1 was the highly abundant transcript during plant growth and developmental stages. RNAi based suppression of BjuGα1 displayed compromised efects on most of the tested vegetative and reproductive parameters, particularly plant height (32–58%), fower and siliques dimensions, and seed weight (11–13%). Further, over-expression of a constitutively active Gα, lacking the GTPase activity, produced plants with increased height, organ size and seed weight (7–25%), without altering seed quality traits like fatty acid composition, glucosinolates, oil and protein contents. Our study demonstrates that BjuGα1 proteins control overall plant architecture and multiple yield-related traits in the oilseed B. juncea, suggesting that BjuGα1 could be a promising target for crop improvement.