Title:Plant bZIP Proteins: Potential use in Agriculture - A Review
Volume: 25
Issue: 2
Author(s): Cláudia Regina Batista de Souza*, Cleyson Pantoja Serrão, Nicolle Louise Ferreira Barros, Sávio Pinho dos Reis and Deyvid Novaes Marques
Affiliation:
- Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA), Belém, PA, 66075-110, Brazil
Keywords:
Biotechnology, drought, environmental stresses, plant defense, phytopathogens, regulatory proteins, transcription factors, salinity.
Abstract: With global climate changes and the increased demand for food due to expected world
population growth, genetic improvement programs have aimed at producing crops with increased
yield and tolerance to environmental stresses, such as drought, salinity, and pathogens. On the other
hand, genetic improvement programs via biotechnology require candidate genes that confer traits of
interest to be incorporated into improved crops. In this regard, genes encoding transcription factors
(TFs) can be promising since they are proteins that transcriptionally regulate the expression of target
genes related to the most diverse roles in the plant, including defense against stresses. Among
TFs, bZIP (basic leucine zipper) proteins regulate many developmental and physiological processes
in the plant, such as seed formation, fruit ripening, nutrient assimilation, and defense response to
abiotic and biotic stresses. In this review, we aim to highlight the main advances in the potential use
of bZIP TFs in the genetic improvement of crops. We address this potential mainly regarding crop
tolerance to stresses and other agricultural traits, such as increased yield and fruit features.