Current challenges and future perspectives of plant and agricultural biotechnology

Menachem Moshelion, Arie Altman*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

69 Scopus citations

Abstract

Advances in understanding plant biology, novel genetic resources, genome modification, and omics technologies generate new solutions for food security and novel biomaterials production under changing environmental conditions. New gene and germplasm candidates that are anticipated to lead to improved crop yields and other plant traits under stress have to pass long development phases based on trial and error using large-scale field evaluation. Therefore, quantitative, objective, and automated screening methods combined with decision-making algorithms are likely to have many advantages, enabling rapid screening of the most promising crop lines at an early stage followed by final mandatory field experiments. The combination of novel molecular tools, screening technologies, and economic evaluation should become the main goal of the plant biotechnological revolution in agriculture.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)337-342
Number of pages6
JournalTrends in Biotechnology
Volume33
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jun 2015

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors thank Professor Paul M. Hasegawa, Purdue University for fruitful discussions and input. They also acknowledge the critical reading and helpful comments of Professor Amram Ashri, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Work in M.M.’s laboratory is supported by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) Jerusalem (grant #1311/12) and by a grant from the German–Israeli Project Cooperation (DIP) (OR309/1-1).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords

  • Abiotic and biotic stress tolerance
  • Biomaterials
  • Crop biotechnology
  • Food security
  • Genotype-phenotype gap
  • Molecular breeding
  • Transgenic plants

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Current challenges and future perspectives of plant and agricultural biotechnology'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this