Notwithstanding the progress of science and technology, yield losses of crop production at global level from various pests, reach today about 30% of the total production. These losses are higher at poor geographies where the need for food is critical and the risk of hunger is high. For this reason, the FAQ launched the UN International Year of Plant Health in 2020, which aimed to raise global awareness on how protecting plant health could help to reduce poverty and hunger, protect the environment, and boost economic development. The main objectives of plant biotechnology are the maintenance of plants in a healthy condition with minimal use of pesticides, the increase of crop yields to satisfy the needs of an increasing world population and also the use of plants as self-contained bioreactors. Since the 1990s, plant biotechnology has contributed to plant protection through many innovative tools as: (i) more accurate and sensitive diagnostic tools for plant pathogens; (ii) sanitation techniques to produce pathogenfree plant propagating material; (iii) production of more effective and safer plant protection products; (iv) the establishment of resistant cultivars through the expression of resistance genes, pathogen-derived genes, plantibodies or by the recent CRISPR-Cas mediated genome editing. Recently, the production of recombinant proteins in plants has been proposed through 'plant molecular farming' platforms, as a tool to support the growing need of biopharmaceuticals, in alternative to conventional production systems. Indeed, plant molecular farming manufactures safer protein products, devoid of human pathogens, which are more easily scalable, cheaper, and more appealing for consumers. Altogether, plant biotechnology has broadened the pathways to obtain resistant plants to biotic and abiotic adversities and plants with increased yield and has also paved the way to use plants as bioreactors to support the needs of biopharmaceuticals or any other desired recombinant protein useful in industrial processes.
PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS: FROM PLANT PROTECTION TO PLANT MOLECULAR FARMING
Slavica Matic;Emanuela Noris;
2021
Abstract
Notwithstanding the progress of science and technology, yield losses of crop production at global level from various pests, reach today about 30% of the total production. These losses are higher at poor geographies where the need for food is critical and the risk of hunger is high. For this reason, the FAQ launched the UN International Year of Plant Health in 2020, which aimed to raise global awareness on how protecting plant health could help to reduce poverty and hunger, protect the environment, and boost economic development. The main objectives of plant biotechnology are the maintenance of plants in a healthy condition with minimal use of pesticides, the increase of crop yields to satisfy the needs of an increasing world population and also the use of plants as self-contained bioreactors. Since the 1990s, plant biotechnology has contributed to plant protection through many innovative tools as: (i) more accurate and sensitive diagnostic tools for plant pathogens; (ii) sanitation techniques to produce pathogenfree plant propagating material; (iii) production of more effective and safer plant protection products; (iv) the establishment of resistant cultivars through the expression of resistance genes, pathogen-derived genes, plantibodies or by the recent CRISPR-Cas mediated genome editing. Recently, the production of recombinant proteins in plants has been proposed through 'plant molecular farming' platforms, as a tool to support the growing need of biopharmaceuticals, in alternative to conventional production systems. Indeed, plant molecular farming manufactures safer protein products, devoid of human pathogens, which are more easily scalable, cheaper, and more appealing for consumers. Altogether, plant biotechnology has broadened the pathways to obtain resistant plants to biotic and abiotic adversities and plants with increased yield and has also paved the way to use plants as bioreactors to support the needs of biopharmaceuticals or any other desired recombinant protein useful in industrial processes.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
