A review on: Targeting sugar signalling for better crop yield

Abstract

The global food insecurity due to high population growth, natural calamity and diminishing per capita land availability can only be addressed by improving the crop productivity in agriculture to sustain the ecosystem and human society. There are many attempts from the past to improve crop productivity, but their practical utility worldwide is still objectionable. Chemical intervention of metabolic pathways is one of the important strategies which can reach up to acceptance level to improve agricultural productivity, and resilience. Trehalose 6-phosphate (T6P) is an important sugar signalling molecule which regulates sugar metabolism, and source-sink balance. External application of artificial chemical analogous to T6P directly modulates T6P levels inside the plants which acts as sugar signal regulated via sucrose nonfermenting-1 (SNF1) related kinase-1 (SnRK1) to boost the grain yield. This review highlights the importance of chemical intervention of sugar signalling molecule like Trehalose-6-phosphate (T6P), which acts as central sugar signal inside the plants, regulates metabolism, improve crop growth, development, and ultimately yield.