Discusses ways of ensuring genetic diversity, advances in wheat breeding and their use to improve properties such as drought resistance and cold tolerance;Summarises research on factors affecting nutritional and other aspects of wheat quality;Reviews advances in understanding wheat pests and diseases together with ways of controlling them such as disease-resistant varieties, integrated pest and weed management

Integrated Pest Management: Current Concepts and Ecological Perspective presents an overview of alternative measures to traditional pest management practices using biological control and biotechnology. The removal of some highly effective broad-spectrum chemicals, caused by concerns over environmental health and public safety, has resulted in the development of alternative, reduced risk crop protection products. These products, less toxic to the environment and easily integrated into biolo...

As the oldest and largest human intervention in nature, the science of agriculture is one of the most intensely studied practices. From manipulation of plant gene structure to the use of plants for bioenergy, biotechnology interventions in plant and agricultural science have been rapidly developing over the past ten years with immense forward leaps on an annual basis. This book begins by laying the foundations for plant biotechnology by outlining the biological aspects including gene struc...

Flowers are the beautiful and complex reproductive structures of the angiosperms, one of the most diverse and successful groups of living organisms. The underlying thesis of this book is that to fully understand plant development (and why flowers differ in shape, structure and colour), it is necessary to understand why it is advantageous for them to look like they do. Conversely, in order to fully understand plant ecology, it is necessary to appreciate how floral structures have developed ...

Deals with the historical perspectives and the current status of doubled haploid production along with its practical implications in basic and applied research. It highlights various haploid production methods with a comprehensive discussion on their pros and cons, bottlenecks, and embryogenic pathways. The review also describes in detail the results of molecular and genomic studies conducted to investigate the underlying principles of this spectacular technique that has changed the status...

In the past 15-20 years major discoveries have been concluded on potato biology and biotechnology. Important new tools have been developed in the area of molecular genetics, and our understanding of potato physiology has been revolutionized due to amenability of the potato to genetic transformation. This technology has impacted our understanding of the molecular basis of plant-pathogen interaction and has also opened new opportunities for the use of the potato in a variety of non-food biot...

Wild crop relatives are now playing a significant part in the elucidation and improvement of the genomes of their cultivated counterparts. This work includes comprehensive examinations of the status, origin, distribution, morphology, cytology, genetic diversity and available genetic and genomic resources of numerous wild crop relatives, as well as of their evolution and phylogenetic relationship. Further topics include their role as model plants, genetic erosion and conservation efforts, a...

Climate change is expected to have a drastic impact on agronomic conditions including temperature, precipitation, soil nutrients, and the incidence of disease pests, to name a few. To face this looming threat, significant progress in developing new breeding strategies has been made over the last few decades.The second volume of Genomics and Breeding for Climate-Resilient Crops describes various genomic and breeding approaches for the genetic improvement of the major target...

This book offers comprehensive coverage of important grain cereals including their origin and distribution, crop gene pool, level of diversity, production constraints, traits of importance for genetic base widening, crop improvement methodologies, genome mapping, genomics for breeding, and future strategies. The chapters, contributed by eminent crop researchers from around the world, provide rare insights into the crop-specific constraints and prospects drawing from their substantial exper...

From the 4th – 8th of September 2011, the Eucarpia Fodder Crops and Amenity Grasses Section, held its 29th Meeting in the surroundings of Dublin Castle in Ireland. The theme of the meeting was ‘Breeding strategies for sustainable forage and turf grass improvement’. Grasslands cover a significant proportion of the land mass of the world, and play a pivotal role in global food production. At the same time we are faced with several challenges that affect the way in which we think about this v...

Advance in barley sciences presents the latest developments in barley sciences. It collects 39 papers submitted to the 11th International Barley Genetics Symposium, and covers all presentation sessions of the conference, i.e., barley development and economy, utilizationof germplasm, genetic resources and genetic stocks, end-uses, biotic stress tolerance, abiotic stresses, new and renewed breeding methodology, barley physiology, breeding success stories, barley genomics and all other...

Genetic erosion is the loss of genetic diversity within a species. It can happen very quickly, due to catastrophic events, or changes in land use leading to habitat loss. But it can also occur more gradually and remain unnoticed for a long time. One of the main causes of genetic erosion is the replacement of local varieties by modern varieties. Other causes include environmental degradation, urbanization, and land clearing through deforestation and brush fires. In order to conserve biodive...