Vol. 6, Issue 2 (2017)

Author(s):
Dr. Sandeep Pandey, Arti Shukla, Supriya Pandey and Ankita Pandey

Abstract:
Resurrection plants are nature’s wonder with a unique water stress tolerant capacity. In recent years some of these species has drawn attention of scientific community to study their physiological mechanism and genetic makeup during water stress and hydrated conditions with a possibility to utilize them as a viable genetic tool to develop drought tolerance species to combat global climate change. This study is an overview of resurrection plant Selaginella bryopteris, a pteridophyte with lithophyte habitat, its distribution, characteristics, constituents and physiological mechanism during dehydrated and rehydrated conditions. Most of the characters except few find this species close to the mythological ‘Sanjeevani booti’. Further, its scope in the field of genetic engineering, pharmacology and medicines are also analysed. More research is required to identify various other similar plant species with a potentiality to prepare drug formulations to fight chronic diseases and to develop engineered plant with drought tolerance capacity.