Trichomes: targets for breeding biotic and abiotic stress tolerant plants

Abstract

Plants possess trichomes on the epidermal layer of aerial parts which includes both glandular and nonglandular types. These unicellular or multicellular structures play predominant role in plant survival by secreting various secondary metabolites during developmental stages of plants. Among the trichomes, glandular type produces the biologically significant metabolic compounds by the expressions of specific genes located in the trichomes that can be up or down regulated by the influence of biotic or abiotic stresses. The stress correlated gene expression makes the plants tolerant to the stresses, which can be isolated and used to produce transgenic stress tolerant plants through genetic engineering.