ABSTRACT
Achievements today in plant biotechnology have already surpassed all previous expectations. Plant biotechnology has thus emerged as an exciting area of research by creating unprecedented opportunities for the manipulation of biological systems of plants. It is a forward-looking research area based on promising accomplishments in the last several decades. Plant biotechnology is changing plant science in the following three major areas: (1) control of plant growth and development (vegetative, generative and propagation); (2) protection of plants against the environmental threats of abiotic or biotic stresses; and (3) expansion of ways by which specialty foods, biochemicals, and pharmaceuticals are produced. In order to determine the current status of plant biotechnology, it must emphasize the difference between the traditional concept of biotechnology and its current status. Early directions of plant biotechnology, which mostly focused on in vitro cell and tissue cultures and their production of important products, now has a new direction. The current state of plant biotechnology research using a number of different approaches includes high throughput methodologies for functional analysis at the levels of transcripts, proteins and metabolites, and methods for genome modication by both homologous and site-specic recombination. Plant biotechnology allows for the transfer of a greater variety of genetic information in a more precise, controlled manner. The potential for improving plant and animal productivity and their proper use in agriculture relies largely on newly developed DNA biotechnology and molecular markers. These techniques enable the selection of successful genotypes, better isolation and cloning of favorable traits, and the creation of transgenic organisms of importance to agriculture and industry.
