Preface

Transgenic crops are referred to as genetically engineered crops. Traits, otherwise impossi‐ ble to introduce by conventional breeding techniques, are tailored using genetic manipula‐ tion and transformation approaches. While developing transgenics, biotechnologists have paid much attention to improving crops to withstand the devastating effects of biotic and abiotic stresses, including insects, pathogens, weeds, salinity, and drought. Advancement in recombinant technology augurs well in the development of transgenics expressing nutra‐ ceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and antigenic proteins (vaccines) for humans and livestock. Henceforth, this book discusses the state-of-the-art advances in this rapidly developing area of transgenic technology, a technology for the food and health security of mainly poor peo‐ ple in developing countries where populations and urbanization are rapidly increasing.

*Transgenic Crops - Emerging Trends and Future Perspectives* consists of seven chapters. The flow of chapters in the book is strategically organized to allow for easy reading. It begins with Chapter 1 in which Drs. Muhammad Sarwar Khan and Kauser Abdulla Malik demon‐ strate comprehensively how novel molecular biology approaches could be used to develop transgenic crops for agronomic and medicinal traits. In Chapter 2, Dr. Mangena explains the factors affecting efficient regeneration of transgenic plants developed through an *Agrobacte‐ rium*-mediated method of genome engineering. Dr. Ricaño-Rodríguez and his team in Chap‐ ter 3 propose the use of CRISPR/Cas9 technology that has allowed the generation of diverse molecular methodologies to constitute significant advances in the genome edition and its subsequent exploitation for agricultural and medicinal purposes. In Chapter 4, Dr. Khan and his team discuss the emerging trends in chloroplast biotechnology, and highlight the use of the technology in the sustainable production of food and expensive molecules. Drs. Muhammad Sayyar Khan and Mudassar Nawaz Khan suggest in Chapter 5 how develop‐ ments in -omics approaches have revolutionized the biotechnology field for crop improve‐ ment against drought and salinity stresses. Drs. Mousavi and Fard very comprehensively highlight genetic improvement of commercially important tropical and subtropical fruit trees, including banana, date palm, citrus, mango, olive, and pineapple in Chapter 6. Drs. Matsaunyane and Dubery discuss the pros and cons of developing transgenic plants in Chapter 7, and suggest that the unattended effects of gene insertions into the genomes be brought about while analyzing the transgenic plants for differential gene expression profil‐ ing, keeping in view safety assessment guidelines and requirements.

#### **Muhammad Sarwar Khan, PhD**

Professor and Director Center of Agricultural Biochemistry and Biotechnology University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan

#### **Kauser Abdulla Malik, PhD**

Professor and Dean Forman Christian College (A Chartered University), Lahore, Pakistan

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Introductory Chapter: Transgenics—Crops Tailored for**

Transgenic crops are referred to as the genetically engineered crops. Traits, otherwise impossible to introduce by conventional approaches, are tailored using genetic manipulations and transformation approaches. Among traits is the introduction of agronomic, pathological, entomological, nutritional, therapeutic-, and vaccine-related characters in plants. The chapter covers state-of-the-art advancements in this rapidly developing area of transgenic technology and the technology for the food and health security mainly of poor populace in the developing countries. This era has seen an explosive growth in population and urbanization, leading to an immense loss of agricultural land; therefore, the food security, especially which of poor populace, is of foremost importance. According to an estimate, this requires approximately 70% increment in food production by 2050. Since the 1990s, the introduction of insect resistance and herbicide tolerance into transgenic crops has increased the yield tremendously, benefiting farmers worldwide. Though production is increased by addressing problems of yield losses using transgenic technology, malnutrition is still one of the biggest challenges, demanding fortification of grains. Since nutrition is one of the main factors in maintaining a healthy lifestyle and meeting requirements of food security, several national nutrition surveys conducted in various countries have provided an avenue for governments to assess malnutrition problems across populations. Micronutrient deficiencies have been termed as the cause of "hidden hunger." Iron-fortified products are the prime examples of it. Pyramiding genes that encode provitamin A, transgenically or naturally, in crops like rice [1], potatoes [2], and maize [3, 4] have made these crops a rich source of provitamin A. In addition to adding nutritional elements in crops, the transgenic technology has led the scientists to tailor medicinal traits, for

**Introductory Chapter: Transgenics—Crops Tailored for** 

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.81372

Muhammad Sarwar Khan and Kauser Abdulla Malik

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

example, therapeutic [5, 6] and antigen proteins [7].

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81372

Muhammad Sarwar Khan and Kauser Abdulla Malik

**Novel Traits**

**1. Introduction**

**Novel Traits**

#### **Introductory Chapter: Transgenics—Crops Tailored for Novel Traits Introductory Chapter: Transgenics—Crops Tailored for Novel Traits**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.81372

Muhammad Sarwar Khan and Kauser Abdulla Malik Muhammad Sarwar Khan and Kauser Abdulla Malik

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81372
