Proteomics: a biotechnology tool for crop improvement

Abstract

A sharp decline in the availability of arable land and sufficient supply of irrigation water along with a continuous steep increase in food demands have exerted a pressure on farmers to produce more with fewer resources. A viable solution to release this pressure is to speed up the plant breeding process by employing biotechnology in breeding programs. The majority of biotechnological applications rely on information generated from various -omic technologies. The latest outstanding improvements in proteomic platforms and many other but related advances in plant biotechnology techniques offer various new ways to encourage the usage of these technologies by plant scientists for crop improvement programs. A combinatorial approach of accelerated gene discovery through genomics, proteomics, and other associated -omic branches of biotechnology, as an applied approach, is proving to be an effective way to speed up the crop improvement programs worldwide. In the near future, swift improvements in -omic databases are becoming critical and demand immediate attention for the effective utilization of these techniques to produce next-generation crops for the progressive farmers. Here, we have reviewed the recent advances in proteomics, as tools of biotechnology, which are offering great promise and leading the path toward crop improvement for sustainable agriculture.

Keywords: biotechnology; crop improvement; proteomics; sustainable agriculture.

FIGURE 1

An illustration showing that the -omics and the conventional plant breeding techniques are the pillars of bio-economy, and a strong bio-economy is the foundation of sustainable development of a society. By the incorporation of these technologies for crop improvements, the bio-economy is uplifted and thus, we should be able to reach our strategic goals set for the agricultural productions by the year 2050.