AUTHOR=Sharma Aman , Prakash Subasty , Chattopadhyay Debasis TITLE=Killing two birds with a single stone—genetic manipulation of cytokinin oxidase/dehydrogenase (CKX) genes for enhancing crop productivity and amelioration of drought stress response JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics VOLUME=13 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2022.941595 DOI=10.3389/fgene.2022.941595 ISSN=1664-8021 ABSTRACT=
The development of high-yielding, bio-fortified, stress-tolerant crop cultivars is the need of the hour in the wake of increasing global food insecurity, abrupt climate change, and continuous shrinking of resources and landmass suitable for agriculture. The cytokinin group of phytohormones positively regulates seed yield by simultaneous regulation of source capacity (leaf senescence) and sink strength (grain number and size). Cytokinins also regulate root-shoot architecture by promoting shoot growth and inhibiting root growth. Cytokinin oxidase/dehydrogenase (CKX) are the only enzymes that catalyze the irreversible degradation of active cytokinins and thus negatively regulate the endogenous cytokinin levels. Genetic manipulation of