Plant productivity is strongly influenced by abiotic stress conditions indu
ced by drought, high salt and low temperature. Plants respond to these cond
itions with an array of biochemical and physiological adaptations, at least
some of which are the result of changes in gene expression. Transgenic app
roaches offer a powerful means of gaining valuable information to better un
derstand the mechanisms governing stress tolerance. They also offer new opp
ortunities to improve dehydration-stress tolerance in crops by incorporatin
g a gene involved in stress protection into species that lack them. In this
review, we discuss progress made towards understanding the molecular eleme
nts involved in dehydration-stress responses that have been used to improve
salt or drought tolerance following several transgenic approaches. Further
, we discuss various strategies being used to produce transgenic plants wit
h increased tolerance to dehydration stress. These include the overproducti
on of enzymes responsible for biosynthesis of osmolytes, late-embryogenesis
-abundant proteins and detoxification enzymes. At this time, there is a nee
d for a careful appraisal of the genes to be selected and promoter elements
to be used, because constitutive expression of these genes may not be desi
rable in all applications. In this context, the advantages and limitations
of transgenic approaches currently being used are discussed together with t
he importance of using stress-inducible promoters and the introduction of m
ultiple genes for the improvement of dehydration-stress tolerance.