Improving stress tolerance in plants by gene transfer

Plant productivity is greatly influenced by environmental stresses, such as freezing, drought, salinity and flooding. One of the ways in which tolerance to these factors can be achieved is by the transfer of genes encoding protective proteins or enzymes from other organisms. Key approaches currently being examined are engineered alterations in the amounts of osmolytes and osmoprotectants, saturation levels of membrane fatty acids, and rate of scavenging of reactive oxygen intermediates.