Plant Science

Biography

Biography: Arie Altman,

Abstract

While plant agricultural biotechnologies have come to fruition due to the implementation of novel molecular marker-assisted crop breeding and genetic engineering, it is important to distinguish the achievements from several remaining R&D needs. At the genotype level, the use of genome mapping and omics markers became a routine in breeding of many agricultural plants. At the phenotype level, improved agricultural techniques are being developed, resulting in enhanced yields and quality traits. Future directions should solve the current major hurdles to agricultural biotechnology: (i) Bridging the genotype–phenotype gap by improving novel high-throughput quantitative and automated screening methods that focus on whole-plant physiology and quality traits. These will enhance the release of newly bred varieties to and avoid long-term and large-scale field studies; (ii) Bridging the genome-environment gap: desired plant traits, especially stress tolerance, depend on the interaction of many genes and metabolic pathways with changing environments, and enhanced adoption of translational research at all R&D stages should be developed; (iii) More attention should be given to epigenetic events that are evolutionarily most relevant to plant adaptation to changing environments; (iv) Improving the biotechnological procedures of novel biomaterial production; (v) Promoting transparent dialog between molecular biologists, plant physiologists, farmers, breeding companies, and the public to solve jointly the economic, sociological, legal, and ethical hurdles. We urge the adoption of a system-bio-agriculture integrated approach to achieve substantial progress in plant biotechnology and agriculture, thus transforming to target it for the Needs of the 21st Century.