Genotoxic Stress, DNA Repair, and Crop Productivity
It is generally acknowledged that plants exposed to adverse environments undergo oxidative stress, resulting in severe injury at the cellular and molecular levels. Environmental pollution, caused by anthropogenic activities, as well as water stress and hi
- PDF / 1,021,177 Bytes
- 17 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 36 Downloads / 218 Views
Genotoxic Stress, DNA Repair, and Crop Productivity Alma Balestrazzi, Massimo Confalonieri, Anca Macovei, Mattia Donà and Daniela Carbonera
1 Introduction It is generally acknowledged that plants exposed to adverse environments undergo oxidative stress, resulting in severe injury at the cellular and molecular levels. Environmental pollution, caused by anthropogenic activities, as well as water stress and high temperature conditions associated with rapid climate changes contribute to soil deterioration and thus affect crop productivity (Ahmad et al. 2010). When plants are challenged with oxidative stress, protective responses which include a complex network of integrated molecular and cellular events, are activated. Initial stress perception and transduction of stress signal are key factors leading to modulation of gene expression and finally to the plant response. Till date, most agronomically relevant genotypes deriving from long-term selection lacks the ability to adapt to environmental fluctuations and suboptimal growth conditions. Such an unfavorable situation is in contrast with the increasing global food demand. According to recent estimates, the world population will rise from 6.8 to 9.1 billion in 2050 and nearly all the expected growth will be localized in developing countries (Alexandratos 2009). For this reason, strong efforts are currently dedicated to understand the multiple aspects of plant stress molecular biology in order to acquire novel insights and provide advanced tools/technologies for improving plant survival and ensure optimal agronomical performance. In recent years, molecular breeding and genetic engineering have contributed significantly to the basic knowledge of the cellular mechanisms involved in stress response, suggesting new strategies to enhance stress tolerance in plants (Sreeniva-
A. Balestrazzi () · A. Macovei · M. Donà · D. Carbonera Dipartimento di Genetica e Microbiologia, Università degli Studi di Pavia, via Ferrata 1, 27100 Pavia, Italy e-mail: [email protected] M. Confalonieri Centro di Ricerca per le Produzioni Foraggere e Lattiero-Casearie (C.R.A.), Lodi, Italy N. Tuteja, S. S. Gill (eds.), Crop Improvement Under Adverse Conditions, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-4633-0_7, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
153
154
A. Balestrazzi et al.
sulu et al. 2007). Despite this, there are some aspects of the plant stress response which still need to be explored. This chapter will focus on the effects of oxidative stress within the nuclear compartment where DNA becomes the main target of the highly toxic reactive oxygen species (ROS). Several abiotic stresses (e.g., water deficit, high salt, UV-light, ionizing radiation, heavy metals, and ozone) can trigger DNA damage by directly acting on the double helix structure or by enhancing the intracellular ROS levels (Tuteja et al. 2009). Oxidative DNA damage requires prompt repair to maintain genome integrity and preserve the fidelity of genetic information. The response of plant cells to genotoxic stress relies o
Data Loading...
