Drought phenotyping in crops: From theory to practice


Book Description

This topic is a unique attempt to simultaneously tackle theoretical and practical aspects in drought phenotyping, through both crop-specific and cross-cutting approaches. It is designed for – and will be of use to – practitioners and postgraduate students in plant science, who are grappling with the challenging task of evaluating germplasm performance under different water regimes. In Part I, different methodologies are presented for accurately characterising environmental conditions, implementing trials, and capturing and analysing the information this generates, regardless of the crop. Part II presents the state-of-art in research on adaptation to drought, and recommends specific protocols to measure different traits in major food crops (focusing on particular cereals, legumes and clonal crops). The topic is part of the CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme’s efforts to disseminate crop research information, tools and protocols, for improving characterisation of environments and phenotyping conditions. The goal is to enhance expertise in testing locations, and to stimulate the development and use of traits related to drought tolerance, as well as innovative protocols for crop characterisation and breeding.




Drought Stress in Maize (Zea mays L.)


Book Description

This book focuses on early germination, one of maize germplasm most important strategies for adapting to drought-induced stress. Some genotypes have the ability to adapt by either reducing water losses or by increasing water uptake. Drought tolerance is also an adaptive strategy that enables crop plants to maintain their normal physiological processes and deliver higher economical yield despite drought stress. Several processes are involved in conferring drought tolerance in maize: the accumulation of osmolytes or antioxidants, plant growth regulators, stress proteins and water channel proteins, transcription factors and signal transduction pathways. Drought is one of the most detrimental forms of abiotic stress around the world and seriously limits the productivity of agricultural crops. Maize, one of the leading cereal crops in the world, is sensitive to drought stress. Maize harvests are affected by drought stress at different growth stages in different regions. Numerous events in the life of maize crops can be affected by drought stress: germination potential, seedling growth, seedling stand establishment, overall growth and development, pollen and silk development, anthesis silking interval, pollination, and embryo, endosperm and kernel development. Though every maize genotype has the ability to avoid or withstand drought stress, there is a concrete need to improve the level of adaptability to drought stress to address the global issue of food security. The most common biological strategies for improving drought stress resistance include screening available maize germplasm for drought tolerance, conventional breeding strategies, and marker-assisted and genomic-assisted breeding and development of transgenic maize. As a comprehensive understanding of the effects of drought stress, adaptive strategies and potential breeding tools is the prerequisite for any sound breeding plan, this brief addresses these aspects.




Plant Breeding for Water-Limited Environments


Book Description

This volume will be the only existing single-authored book offering a science-based breeder’s manual directed at breeding for water-limited environments. Plant breeding is characterized by the need to integrate information from diverse disciplines towards the development and delivery of a product defines as a new cultivar. Conventional breeding draws information from disciplines such as genetics, plant physiology, plant pathology, entomology, food technology and statistics. Plant breeding for water-limited environments and the development of drought resistant crop cultivars is considered as one of the more difficult areas in plant breeding while at the same time it is becoming a very pressing issue. This volume is unique and timely in that it develops realistic solutions and protocols towards the breeding of drought resistant cultivars by integrating knowledge from environmental science, plant physiology, genetics and molecular biology.




Phenotyping for Plant Breeding


Book Description

Plant phenotyping is the thorough assessment of plant traits such as growth, development, adaptation, yield, quality, tolerance, resistance, architecture, and the basic measurement of individual quantitative parameters that form the basis for understanding of traits. Genetic approaches to understand plant growth and development have always benefitted from phenotyping techniques that are simple, rapid and measurable in units. The forward genetics approach is all about understanding the trait inheritance using the phenotypic data and in most cases it is the mutant phenotypes that formed the basis for understanding of gene functions. With rapid advancement of genotyping techniques, high throughput genotyping has become a reality at costs people never imagined to be that low, but the phenotypic methods did not receive same attention. However, without quality phenotyping data the genotyping data cannot be effectively put to use in plant improvement. Therefore efforts are underway to develop high-throughput phenotyping methods in plants to keep pace with revolutionary advancement in genotyping techniques to enhance the efficiency of crop improvement programs. Keeping this in mind, we described in this book the best phenomic tools available for trait improvement in some of the world’s most important crop plants.




Advances in Plant Breeding Strategies: Agronomic, Abiotic and Biotic Stress Traits


Book Description

The basic concept of this book is to examine the use of innovative methods augmenting traditional plant breeding towards the development of new crop varieties under different environmental conditions to achieve sustainable food production. This book consists of two volumes: Volume 1 subtitled Breeding, Biotechnology and Molecular Tools and Volume 2 subtitled Agronomic, Abiotic and Biotic Stress Traits. This is volume 2 which contains 18 chapters highlighting breeding strategies for specific plant traits including improved nutritional and pharmaceutical properties as well as enhanced tolerance to insects, diseases, drought, salinity and temperature extremes expected under predicted global climate change.




Genetic Mapping and Marker Assisted Selection


Book Description

The first edition of this book, Genetic Mapping and Marker Assisted Selection: Basics, Practice and Benefits, was widely appreciated as the first of its kind on this topic and has been listed as a reference work in several agricultural universities’ curricula. A great deal has happened over the last five years, making it high time to incorporate recent developments in genetic mapping and report on novel strategies in marker assisted selection in crop plants as a second edition. This book addresses a range of topics, including: new marker types and their genotyping methods based on high-throughput technologies, advances in genomics and their role in new marker development, improvements in genetic mapping strategies and software updates, developments in phenomics and their applications in QTL mapping, and how to incorporate these developments and advances in marker assisted selection in crop plants. Similar to the first edition, each technique and method is explained using a step-by-step method, allowing the book to serve as a self-study guide for scholars whose work involves the genetic improvement of crop plants for any trait of interest, particularly for biotic and abiotic stress resistance. In addition, the book offers a valuable guide for undergraduate and graduate students at agricultural universities and institutes that are interested and/or involved in the genetic improvement of crop plants using modern tools. In addition, the bibliography includes a list of suggested works for pursuing further research on the topics covered.




Eco-friendly Agro-biological Techniques for Enhancing Crop Productivity


Book Description

As the world population is exploding and alongside fluctuations in climate is also prevalent, there is an increasing stress on the food requirements of the population. We have an urgent necessity to produce more food in the limited agricultural land. Further, to feed 7 billion people there is a requirement of high yielding crops, without harming environment and limiting the use of unnecessary pesticide and chemical fertilizers. Therefore it has become crucial to develop agri-bio-techniques which are environment friendly and also give high crop productivity. Many countries are evaluating the utility of biotechnology and its role in addressing problems of food security and poverty. Biotechnology is the application of scientific and engineering principles to the processing and production of materials by utilising biological agents. These agents are exploited to provide goods and services. Agricultural biotechnology encompasses a growing list of techniques that range from simple probes to determine a relevant gene from the complete genome to manipulating genes for a desired outcome. Many other popular methods used in the realm of agricultural technology are – gene integration, Marker-assisted breeding, Tissue culture, Gene profiling or association mapping, Metabolomics etc. The fundamental challenge facing the scientific community is how to devise innovative strategies that will bring all developed as well as developing countries into the “biological fold” and to do so in ways that will take full advantage of advances in the biological sciences to curb poverty, improve public health, and promote human development. This book contains information on eco-friendly techniques for high crop productivity and it is a myriad of different techniques and technology used to sustain productivity in crop plants. There are fewer books focusing on large-scale organic farming, molecular farming etc. Multidisciplinary research and literature is needed to deliver knowledge and products into the marketplace which fulfil these requirements. The present book is a collection of literature contributed by experts, scientists, professors, and researchers from around the world, it emphasizes work of concerned scientist and his choice of techniques used for enhancement of agricultural production. This book analyses the use of modern techniques to increase crop yields, production, and risk of hunger linked to socioeconomic scenarios.




Genomics Assisted Breeding of Crops for Abiotic Stress Tolerance, Vol. II


Book Description

The abiotic stresses like drought, temperature, cold, salinity, heavy metals etc. affect a great deal on the yield performance of the agricultural crops. To cope up with these challenges, plant breeding programs world-wide are focussing on the development of stress tolerant varieties in all crop species. Significant genomic advances have been made for abiotic stress tolerance in various crop species in terms of availability of molecular markers, QTL mapping, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), genomic selection (GS) strategies, and transcriptome profiling. The broad-range of articles involving genomics and breeding approaches deepens our existing knowledge about complex traits. The chapters are written by authorities in their respective fields. This book provides comprehensive and consolidated account on the applications of the most recent findings and the progress made in genomics assisted breeding for tolerance to abiotic stresses in many important major crop species with a focus on applications of modern strategies for sustainable agriculture. The book is especially intended for students, molecular breeders and scientists working on the genomics-assisted genetic improvement of crop species for abiotic stress tolerance.




Climate Change and Food Security with Emphasis on Wheat


Book Description

Climate Change and Food Security with Emphasis on Wheat is the first book to present the full scope of research in wheat improvement, revealing the correlations to global issues including climate change and global warming which contribute to food security issues. Wheat plays a key role in the health of the global economy. As the world population continuously increases, economies modernize, and incomes rise, wheat production will have to increase dramatically to secure it as a reliable and sustainable food source. Since covering more land area with wheat crops is not a sustainable option, future wheat crops must have consistently higher yields and be able to resist and/or tolerate biotic and abiotic stresses that result from climate change. Addressing the biophysical and socioeconomic constraints of producing high-yielding, disease-resistant, and good quality wheat, this book will aid in research efforts to increase and stabilize wheat production worldwide. Written by an international team of experts, Climate Change and Food Security with Emphasis on Wheat is an excellent resource for academics, researchers, and students interested in wheat and grain research, especially as it is relevant to food security. - Covers a wide range of disciplines, including plant breeding, genetics, agronomy, physiology, pathology, quantitative genetics and genomics, biotechnology and gene editing - Explores the effect of climate change on biotic stresses (stripe rust, stem rust, leaf rust, Karnal bunt, spot blotch) on wheat production and utilization of biotechnology - Focuses on whole genome sequencing and next-generation sequencing technologies to improve wheat quality and address the issue of malnutrition in developing world




Cereal Genomics II


Book Description

“Cereal Genomics” published in 2004 served the purpose of collecting all information on cereal genomics at one place and was well received by the cereal workers through-out the world. The last eight years have witnessed significant advancement in the field of cereal genomics. For instance, high-density genetic maps, physical maps, QTL maps and even draft genome sequence have become available for several cereal species. Furthermore, the next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have revolutionized genomics research, so that it is possible now to sequence genomes of hundreds or thousands of accessions of an individual cereal crop. Significant amounts of data generated using these NGS technologies created a demand for computational tools to analyse this massive data. In view of these developments, the Editors realised that there was a need to have an updated volume on the present status and future prospects of cereal genomics. These developments related to technology and the tools have been documented in this volume, thus supplementing our earlier edited volume “Cereal Genomics”. “Cereal Genomics II” discusses advances in cereal genomics research made during the last eight years, and presents state-of-art cereal genomics and its utilization involving both basic research such as comparative genomics and functional genomics, and applied research like QTL mapping and molecular breeding.