LlaNAC Transgenic Tobacco Lines Efficiently Sequester and Stockpile Carbon

Rapidly changing environment, particularly the global warming require plants to be more stress tolerant and display better productivity. We have assessed the abilities of a NAC over-expressor transgenic line of tobacco vis-à-vis wild type to survive the conditions of elevated carbon dioxide (500 ppm) and elevated temperatures (32°C) throughout the postgermination period in the life cycle of the plants. All the seeds were germinated under optimum conditions. The control plants in the experiment were the equal number of plants that were allowed to grow under optimum conditions of 390 ppm CO2 and 25°C temperature. Significant differences in growth, and accordingly carbon captured by different plants were observed even under optimum conditions. The biomass accumulated by transgenics was two and a half times more than the wild type plants on 90th DAS. Under elevated temperature and carbon dioxide, the difference in height between the transgenics and the wild type under these conditions was by nearly five times, and carbon captured was seven times more than the wild type. Presumably, transgenic plants had a better water use efficiency, and made use of additional carbon dioxide available to synthesize more carbohydrates, and consequently the biomass. Transgenic plants, as the one described here are potential solutions of uncertainty of agricultural yields that the world is facing today, and may lead to sustainable future in agriculture for food, feed and fuels.