CRISPR for Climate-Smart and Sustainable Agriculture summarizes the current genome editing technology being used in food and energy crops. It presents methods and applications of CRISPR tools for breeding climate-smart and stress-tolerant crops that are better able to resist biotic and abiotic stressors due to climate change.Gene editing tools are increasingly seen as options for improving plant health and productivity. CRISPR is one such emerging and quickly advancing crucial technology for the research field of plant physiology, plant molecular biology, and crop breeding. CRISPR for Climate-Smart and Sustainable Agriculture focuses on genetic engineering using CRISPR technology for precision breeding of crops to achieve climate resilience, stress tolerance, and higher yield. Organized by specific plant challenges, this book presents expert insights from around the globe, providing updated knowledge of CRISPR with an emphasis on facing climate change and supporting sustainable agriculture.This volume in the Genome Modified Plants and Microbes in Food and Agriculture series will be valuable for researchers, academics, and advanced-level students seeking to understand and advance the use of CRISPR technologies toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement.
MicroRNA Advances and Application in Plant Biology presents a broad range of tools and techniques used for microRNA identification and utilization for diversity analysis in plants, crop improvement, and gene regulation. With expert insights, this book addresses those concepts through curated chapters that are well-illustrated with informative data, tables, figures, and photographs. While biological microRNA database resources have been created for the better understanding of structural and functional properties of primary-microRNAs (pri-microRNAs) to mature microRNAs, there remains a need for foundation understanding of how microRNAs may play a very crucial role in a plant lifecycle as an regulatory and stress tolerance molecule.There are still many unanswered questions about the structural and functional properties of the microRNAs, like the role of microRNA in crop improvement, gene regulation, stress tolerance, disease resistance plant, plant communication, and environmental interaction.
Guide to Plant Single-Cell Technology: Functional Genomics and Crop Improvement summarizes the current status of single-cell technology in plants involving food and energy crops. Presenting methods and applications of emerging high-throughput technologies performed using the single-cell platform it includes an emphasis on single-cell RNA sequencing and eventually towards single-cell omics, which are highly complementary and effective for profiling the plant cell subject to either environmental factors or pathogenic threats. These technologies can advance the exploration of plant physiology as well as precision crop breeding for future anti-stress and high-yield plants and achieve sustainable agriculture.The book covers crop improvement and breeding strategies involving single-cell technology to produce future stress-tolerant and high-yield plants, which have better performances on growth, and development to achieve enhanced production of foods and biomass.Guide to Plant Single-Cell Technology: Functional Genomics and Crop Improvement will be a valuable reference resource for academics and researchers in plant and crop sciences.
Breeding Disease-Resistant Horticultural Crops is a complete and comprehensive resource for understanding the concept of breeding disease resistant crops, especially horticultural crops. Breeders of horticultural crops face distinct challenges that are different from agronomy/row crops, and these crops do not benefit from the vast body of literature available for agronomic crops. This book covers the basic theories that underpin breeding for disease resistance and features extensive real-world examples. Both classical and biotechnical breeding methods are covered, with an emphasis on how these methods are adapted for horticultural species. Presented in a logical flow for the reader, this book addresses historical perspectives and context as it relates to breeding for disease resistance. It highlights treatments of resistance in the context of the phenotype, the genotype, the pathogen, the environment interaction, sources of resistance, and the deployment of resistance to obtain a durable resistance.
Genetic Engineering and Genome Editing for Zinc Biofortification of Rice provides the first single-volume comprehensive resource on genetic engineering approaches, including novel genome editing techniques, to be carried out in rice, a staple crop for much of the world’s population. While zinc biofortification can be achieved through conventional breeding, genetic engineering, and agronomic practices, this book presents the latest developments, based on real-world experience and with targeted application. Dietary zinc deficiency can lead to negative health outcomes, including increased risk of stunting, respiratory diseases, diarrhea and mortality during childhood, and preterm births in pregnancy. Although providing access to diverse diet is an ideal solution to alleviate zinc deficiency, it may not be a viable solution in developing countries. Zinc biofortification, a process of increasing zinc concentration in the edible part of food crops, has been proposed as a sustainable approach that can reach people living in remote rural areas, complementing other interventions, such as supplementation and industrial fortification. Providing a complete view of the need for, and means of, zinc biofortification in rice, sections in this book discuss state-of-the-art scientific advances, and then goes further, placing them in their proper scientific, regulatory, and socioeconomic contexts. Thus, Genetic Engineering and Genome Editing for Zinc Biofortification of Rice is a valuable resource for graduate students, researchers, educators, librarians, and professionals in various kinds of institutions which focused on agriculture, environmental science, and plant science.
Plant Small RNA for Food Crops provides foundational insights into the role of small RNA in food crops in varying environmental conditions and how it can help in developing molecular frameworks to support agricultural sustainability to feed the world’s population. Small RNA populations have been widely identified in various plants and have been reported to be involved in regulating the molecular functioning of plants and their responses for biotic and abiotic environmental factors. Until now, however, a detailed compilation of role of small RNAs in food crops growth, yield and environmental responses had been unavailable. This book provides a detailed description of role of various small RNAs whose utilization in a range of food crops may serve to improve sustainability, productivity, and maintenance during environmental stress conditions. It brings together the reported small RNAs along with their applications specific to food crops, but also covers recent studies, innovations and future perspectives.
Developing Sustainable and Health Promoting Cereals and Pseudocereals: Conventional and Molecular Breeding reviews the most recent developments in the fields of cereal and pseudocereal breeding, with particular emphasis on the latest biotechnological techniques likely to lead to breakthrough changes in plant breeding. The book provides comprehensive information on the use of genetic resources or pre-breeding activities to improve health-related properties of cereals and pseudocereals. The text also explores targeted field-management practices and the latest in biotechnological methodologies, and offers a cohesive overview necessary for understanding the potential impacts and benefits of improved production of cereals and pseudocereals with high-nutritional value.
The Plant Hormone Ethylene: Stress Acclimation and Agricultural Applications presents current knowledge on our understanding of ethylene perception and signaling, its role in the regulation of plant physiological processes, and its contribution to acclimation in stressful environments. Plants regularly face environmental constraints due to their immobile nature. In persistently changing environmental conditions, several stress factors influence cellular metabolism, ultimately causing reduced plant growth and development with a significant loss in agricultural productivity. Sustainable agriculture depends on the acclimation of plant processes to the changing environment through altered physiological and molecular responses, which are controlled by plant hormones, including ethylene. Ethylene interacts with other plant hormones and signaling molecules to regulate several cellular processes, plant growth and development, and, ultimately, crop productivity. This book begins with an introduction to ethylene before providing a detailed study of the latest findings on the role of ethylene in plants, including its role in photosynthetic processes, flower development, leaf senescence, nutrients acquisition, and regulation of abiotic stress responses as well as its application in agriculture. The book is an ideal guide for researchers exploring plant physiology and biochemistry as well as for those investigating the use of ethylene knowledge in agriculture in persistently changing environmental conditions.
QTL Mapping in Crop Improvement: Present Progress and Future Perspectives presents advancements in QTL breeding for biotic and abiotic stresses and nutritional improvement in a range of crop plants. The book presents a roadmap for future breeding for resilience to various stresses and improvement in nutritional quality. Crops such as rice, wheat, maize, soybeans, common bean, and pigeon pea are the major staple crops consumed globally, hence fulfilling the nutritional requirements of global populations, particularly in the under-developed world, is extremely important. Sections cover the challenges facing maximized production of these crops, including diseases, insect damage, drought, heat, salinity and mineral toxicity. Covering globally important crops including maize, wheat, rice, barley, soybean, common bean and pigeon pea, this book will be an important reference for those working in agriculture and crop improvement.