Improving Crop Tolerance to Abiotic Stress for Sustainable Agriculture: Progress in Manipulating Ascorbic Acid Metabolism via Genome Editing

Ugo Rogo, Ambra Viviani, Claudio Pugliesi (), Marco Fambrini, Gabriele Usai, Marco Castellacci and Samuel Simoni
Additional contact information
Ugo Rogo: Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto, 80, I-56124 Pisa, Italy
Ambra Viviani: Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Technologies (DISTAL), Alma Mater Studiorum—Università di Bologna, Viale G. Fanin, 44, I-40127 Bologna, Italy
Claudio Pugliesi: Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto, 80, I-56124 Pisa, Italy
Marco Fambrini: Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto, 80, I-56124 Pisa, Italy
Gabriele Usai: Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto, 80, I-56124 Pisa, Italy
Marco Castellacci: Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto, 80, I-56124 Pisa, Italy
Samuel Simoni: Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto, 80, I-56124 Pisa, Italy

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 2, 1-32

Abstract: Plants often encounter challenging environmental factors, including intense sunlight, drought, extreme heat, cold temperatures, salinity, excessive metals, and nutrient shortages, which can heavily affect their growth and survival. In this regard, L-ascorbic acid (AsA) is not only an essential nutrient for human health but also plays a significant role in plant responses to environmental stresses, regulating various functions during growth and development, redox signaling, and phytohormone biosynthesis. The growing need to cope with climate change, together with the advancement of CRISPR/Cas9-editing technologies, stimulated new opportunities to enhance AsA biosynthesis to improve crop stress tolerance. In this review, we discuss the biosynthesis and regulation of AsA in abiotic stress response mechanisms. We also explore the latest advancements of CRISPR/Cas9 technologies, their applications, and their challenges as tools for modifying genes associated with AsA metabolism, aiming to develop crops more tolerant and resilient to environmental changes.

Keywords: L-ascorbic acid; abiotic stresses; reactive oxygen species; sustainable technologies and innovations; CRISPR/Cas; plant resilience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/2/719/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/2/719/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:2:p:719-:d:1569617

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().