Biotech Today

Crops can now be modified genetically in unique ways, which has the potential to solve significant issues with contemporary agriculture. Using Agrobacterium as a biological vector has made it possible to introduce genes into plants. While simpler and more effective, agrobacterium-based techniques have the drawback of not being suitable for all plant species. Recent research suggests that by creating unique plant cell culture protocols and specifying inoculation and co-cultivation conditions, these host-range constraints may be circumvented. The most popular technique for introducing new genes into plants relies on Agrobacterium tumefaciens inherent ability to transfer DNA. In the natural world, a broad variety of dicotyledonous plant species develop crown galls, which are tumors caused by this soil bacterium. T-DNA, a component of the Ti-plasmid of the Agrobacterium, is transported and incorporated into the plant genome during this infection. Because of this inherent ability, we used this bacterium to introduce foreign genes (incorporated into the Ti-plasmid) into plant chromosomes naturally. In order to create a transgenic Bt cotton crop that is resistant to the cotton bollworm bug and reduces losses by 50 to 60%, the desired Bt gene isolate from Bacillus thuringiensis was inserted into cotton. Future transgenic crops will aid with biotic and abiotic stress as well as improve crop management practices for productivity and quality.