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Manipulation of inositol metabolism for improved plant survival under stress: a “network engineering approach”

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Abstract

Emergence of high-throughput sequencing tools and omics technologies paved the way for systems biology in last decade. While we have started to look at the biology of the plant in a more unified manner, the integration of such knowledge in agricultural biotechnology has become an arena of potential interest. The network of several central molecules operating in various life and developmental processes are now more adequately known, and fine tuning of such molecule pools, if connected to stress response, can result in enhanced stress tolerance of plants.This review interprets the potential of manipulation of myo-inositol and its derivatives in generation of transgenic crop plants. Being a molecule of central importance in plant life, inositol is connected to numerous life processes. The exploration of such pathways indicates that inositol itself and many of its derivatives can impart abiotic stress tolerance (against salinity, dehydration, chilling or oxidative stress) to plants when overexpressed. We propose that engineering inositol metabolic network is a potential approach towards stress-tolerant transgenic crop plant generation and thus its exploitation in agricultural biotechnology is the call of time.

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Acknowledgements

Work in the laboratory have been supported by grants (to ALM) from the Department of Biotechnology and the Department of Atomic Energy, Govt of India. ALM is a Raja Ramanna Fellow (Department of Atomic Energy, India). SM is a Senior Research Fellow (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research). SSG is a Staff Scientist of a DBT supported project. LG, RM, SS, AM and NR are supported by Department of Biotechnology, India. PB is a Junior Research Fellow under DAE.

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  1. Division of Plant Biology, Bose Institute (Centenary Building), P-1/12, C I T Scheme VII M, Kolkata, 700 054, India

    Sonali Sengupta, Sritama Mukherjee, Lily Goswami, Shiny Sangma, Abhishek Mukherjee, Rajeswari Mukherjee, Niladri Roy, Papri Basak & Arun Lahiri Majumder

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  1. Sonali Sengupta
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  2. Sritama Mukherjee
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  3. Lily Goswami
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  4. Shiny Sangma
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  5. Abhishek Mukherjee
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  6. Rajeswari Mukherjee
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  7. Niladri Roy
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  9. Arun Lahiri Majumder
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Correspondence to Sonali Sengupta or Arun Lahiri Majumder.

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Sengupta, S., Mukherjee, S., Goswami, L. et al. Manipulation of inositol metabolism for improved plant survival under stress: a “network engineering approach”. J. Plant Biochem. Biotechnol. 21 (Suppl 1), 15–23 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13562-012-0132-3

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