Genetic engineering of plants to tolerate toxic metals and metalloids

Abstract Soil contamination with toxic metals and metalloids is posing severe threats to agriculture production around the world. With the rapid expansion of industrialization and urbanization, harmful materials are being discharged freely into the atmosphere, leading toward enhanced soil and air pollution. Additionally, deforestation is another huge factor that augmented the accumulation of toxic wastes in air and soil. Evasion and lessening the effects of soil contamination is an important challenge. Plant capabilities to transform, translocate, and reduce the harmful effects of heavy metals and metalloids may be considerably increased through genetic engineering. It has the great potential to develop metal tolerant plant by using efficient ways of gene transfer. In this chapter, we discussed the modern ways of genetic engineering to improve phytoremediation abilities of plants in the perspective of metals and metalloids tolerance. Approaches for developing plants efficient in soil remediation and improve tolerance to extreme metal stress are significantly evaluated. Advanced ways of plant genetic engineering for metal tolerance are also described. Additionally, the promising directions to overcome the drawbacks of phytoremediation via genetic engineering strategies projected. The information assembled here could be beneficial for planning new experimental studies directed to improve the plant tolerance to heavy metals and metalloids. Moreover, genome editing is an emerging strategy, which can be used to improve the capability of plants for efficient phytoremediation of toxic materials. Furthermore, we focused on the advanced approaches, including omics and genome editing to enhance phytoremediation and metal stress tolerance and also highlights their innovation, usefulness, and future application for safe and sustainable agriculture.