Geminiviruses and Food Security: A Molecular Genetics Perspective for Sustainable Agriculture in Africa

The African continent is vulnerable to food insecurity. Increased food costs, job losses, and climate change force Africans to chronic hunger. Biotechnology can be used to mitigate this by using techniques such as CRISPR/Cas9 systems, TALENs, and ZFNs. Biotechnology can utilize geminiviruses to deli...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Minenhle Felicia Zenda, Priscilla Masamba, Farhahna Allie, Abidemi Paul Kappo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-10-01
Series:Plants
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/13/19/2768
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Summary:The African continent is vulnerable to food insecurity. Increased food costs, job losses, and climate change force Africans to chronic hunger. Biotechnology can be used to mitigate this by using techniques such as CRISPR/Cas9 systems, TALENs, and ZFNs. Biotechnology can utilize geminiviruses to deliver the necessary reagents for precise genome alteration. Additionally, plants infected with geminiviruses can withstand harsher weather conditions such as drought. Therefore, this article discusses geminivirus replication and its use as beneficial plant DNA viruses. It focuses explicitly on genome editing to increase plant resistance by manipulating plants’ salicylic acid and jasmonic acid pathways.
ISSN:2223-7747