Plant biotechnological approaches for the production and commercialization of transgenic crops

Abstract

This review initially briefly introduces methods of plant transformation and then describes some of the major achievements concerning the production and commercialization of transgenic crops. It surveys the outlook of plant transformation for improvement of crop productivity by introducing genes of interest such as for enhancing soil nutrients utilization, resistance to insects, viral and bacterial diseases. It also deals with the high quality transgenic crops having improved nutritional and health characteristics as well as increased tolerance to drought, extreme temperature, high salinity and heavy metal soil contamination. Marketable biotechnological products like biodegradable plastics, metabolites with pharmaceutical properties and edible vaccines produced in genetically modified plants are also discussed, in this review. © 2009 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.