Advances in Agronomy continues to be recognized as a leading reference and a first-rate source of the latest and best research in agronomy. As always, the topics covered are varied and exemplary of the panoply of subject matter dealt with by this long-running serial.
Volume 67 contains four comprehensive and timely reviews on topics in the crop and soil sciences. Chapter 1 addresses one of the most active areas in agronomic research--precision agriculture. Chapter 2 is a thoughtful review on surface charge and solute interactions in soils. Chapter 3 thoroughly covers advances in the use of molecular genetics to enhance abiotic/edaphic stress resistance in turfgrass. Chapter 4 is a useful review on a topic that is of great interest to agronomists--allelopathy.

"Advances in Agronomy" continues to be recognized as a leading reference and a first-rate source for the latest research in agronomy. As always, the subjects covered are varied and exemplary of the myriad of subject matter dealt with by this long-running serial
*Maintains the highest impact factor among serial publications in agriculture
*Presents timely reviews on important agronomy issues
*Enjoys a long-standing reputation for excellence in the field

Plant molecular biology came to the fore in the early 1980s and there has been tremendous growth in the subject since then. The study of plant genes and genomes and the development of techniques for the incorporation of novel or modified genes into plants eventually led to the commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) crops in the mid-1990s. This was seen as the start of a biotechnological revolution in plant breeding. However, plant biotechnology has become one of the hottest debates of the age and, in Europe at least, one of the greatest challenges that plant scientists have ever faced.This book covers the history and development of the science and techniques that underpin plant biotechnology. It describes the GM crops that are or have been grown commercially around the world, including failures as well as successes, and the new varieties that are being developed. The safety record of GM crops is reviewed together with the legislation that has been adopted to cover their use. The book also deals with the concerns of consumers, the GM crop debate and the prospects for the technology. In the second edition, sections on current GM crops and future developments in plant biotechnology have been greatly expanded, while those on techniques, legislation and the GM crop debate have also been updated.The book is a concise, comprehensive and readable study that is accessible to a general readership with a scientific background but also provides useful information for the specialist.

Volume 64 contains six comprehensive reviews covering key contemporary topics on crop and soil sciences. As always, the topics are varied and exemplary of the array of subject matter covered by this long-running serial. With this latest volume, Advances in Agronomy continues to be recognized as a leading reference and as a first-rate source of the latest research in agronomy, crop science, and soil science.
Key Features
* Cytogenics and genetics of pearl millet
* Comprehensive look at advances in ICP emission and ICP spectrometry
* Cotton growth and nitrogen supply
* Sources and behavior of arsenic in the soil environment
* Dryland cropping intensification methods
* How plant roots acquire mineral nutrients

The book will address selected topics in postharvest pathology aiming at highlighting recent development in the science, technology and control strategies of postharvest diseases to reduce losses and enhance safety of harvested agricultural products. Topics will include: 1) Introduction: Perspectives and challenges in postharvest pathology 2) Elucidating host-pathogen interactions 3) Next generation technologies for management and detection of postharvest pathogens 4) Food safety in postharvest pathology 5) Alternative postharvest diseases control strategies 6) Chemical control of postharvest diseases

"Advances in Agronomy" continues to be recognized as a leading reference and a first-rate source for the latest research in agronomy. As always, the subjects covered are varied and exemplary of the myriad of subject matter dealt with by this long-running serial.
Maintains the highest impact factor among serial publications in agriculture Presents timely reviews on important agronomy issues Enjoys a long-standing reputation for excellence in the field

"Advances in Agronomy" continues to be recognized as a leading reference and a first-rate source for the latest research in agronomy. As always, the subjects covered are varied and exemplary of the myriad of subject matter dealt with by this long-running serial.
Maintains the highest impact factor among serial publications in agriculture Presents timely reviews on important agronomy issues Enjoys a long-standing reputation for excellence in the field

The food, feed, ?ber, and fuel needs of the changing world pose the challenge of doubling or tripling of world food, feed, and ?ber production by the year 2050 to meet the needs of a 11 billion global population. In addition, the dramatic changes in food prices in the recent years further warrant that production and productivity need to be enhanced to ensure adequate supplies. Biotechnology can make a signi?cant contribution to this effort as demonstrated by cotton and other crops; the new advances in biotechnology have made it possible to develop plants that contain genes that were not possible to be developed by sexual means. Cotton has been a leader in the use of biotechnology. With the introduction of Bt cotton, followed by stacked cotton products (insect and herbicide tolerance) and extensive use of molecular breeding tools, cotton cultivation has been much improved. The contributions in this book illustrate the scienti?c advances that are going on in cotton and the impact they continue to deliver for all cotton growers. Twelve percent of the global cotton area is now under biotech products at 15. 5 million ha. The primary bene?ts from using genetically engineered cotton include reduced insecticide use, lower production costs, improved yields, lower farming risks, and increased opportunities to grow cotton in areas of severe pest infestation.

During the past 15 years, cellular and molecular approaches have emerged as valuable adjuncts to supplement and complement conventional breeding methods for a wide variety of crop plants. Biotechnology increasingly plays a role in the creation, conservation, characterization and utilization of genetic variability for germplasm enhancement. For instance, anther/microspore culture, somaclonal variation, embryo culture and somatic hybridization are being exploited for obtaining incremental improvement in the existing cultivars. In addition, genes that confer insect- and disease-resistance, abiotic stress tolerance, herbicide tolerance and quality traits have been isolated and re-introduced into otherwise sensitive or susceptible species by a variety of transgenic techniques. Together these transformative methodologies grant access to a greater repertoire of genetic diversity as the gene(s) may come from viruses, bacteria, fungi, insects, animals, human beings, unrelated plants or even be artificially derived. Remarkable achievements have been made in the production, characterization, field evaluation and commercialization of transgenic crop varieties worldwide. Likewise, significant advances have been made towards increasing crop yields, improving nutritional quality, enabling crops to be raised under adverse conditions and developing resistance to pests and diseases for sustaining global food and nutritional security. The overarching purpose of this 3-volume work is to summarize the history of crop improvement from a technological perspective but to do so with a forward outlook on further advancement and adaptability to a changing world. Our carefully chosen "case studies of important plant crops" intend to serve a diverse spectrum of audience looking for the right tools to tackle complicated local and global issues.

Meeting the world's food security challenge will require a multi-national, collaborative effort to integrate the best research from science, engineering and socioeconomics so that technological advances can bring benefits where they are most needed. The present book covers the effect of major environmental problems on crop production and how to cope with these issues for sustainable agriculture and improvements of crops. The world's population is predicted to hit 9.6 Billion by 2050, up from today's total of nearly 7.3 Billion, and with it food demand is predicted to increase substantially. The post-war 'second agricultural revolution' in developed countries, and the 'green revolution' in developing nations in the mid- 1960s converted agricultural practices and elevated crop yields spectacularly, but the outcome is levelling off and will not meet projected demand. Simultaneously, crop production is affected by many other factors, including industrial pollution, overuse of fertilizers and insecticides, heavy metal and radiation stresses etc. It has been noted that many pests are becoming resistant to insecticides. Estimates vary, but around 25% of crops can be lost to pests and diseases. Climate change associated with agriculture is also a global issue. Agriculture is a significant contributor to greenhouse gases and is estimated to account for 10-12% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Many of the issues highlighted are global problems and are addressed thoroug hly in this work.

Advances in molecular biology and genome research in the form of molecular breeding and genetic engineering put forward innovative prospects for improving productivity of many pulses crops. Pathways have been discovered, which include regulatory elements that modulate stress responses (e.g., transcription factors and protein kinases) and functional genes, which guard the cells (e.g., enzymes for generating protective metabolites and proteins). In addition, numerous quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with elevated stress tolerance have been cloned, resulting in the detection of critical genes for stress tolerance. Together these networks can be used to enhance stress tolerance in pulses. This book summarizes recent advances in pulse research for increasing productivity, improving biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, and enhancing nutritional quality.

"Global Tea Breeding: Achievements, Challenges and Perspectives" provides a global review on biodiversity and biotechnology issues in tea breeding and selection. The contributions are written by experts from China, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Turkey, Indonesia, Japan, Bangladesh, Korea, Nigeria, and etc., which countries amount to 90% of the world tea production. This book focuses on the germplasm, breeding and selection of tea cultivars for the production of black, green and Oolong teas from the tea plant, "Camellia sinensis "(L.) O. Kuntze. It can benefit the tea breeders in the global tea industry, as well as the breeders of other woody cash crops like coffee and other sub-tropical fruit trees.

Liang Chen is a Professor and Associate Director at National Center for Tea Improvement, Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (TRICAAS), Hangzhou, China.

Zeno Apostolides is a Professor at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Zong-Mao Chen is the Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a Professor at the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China.

Corn is among the most familiar of grains; it is also one of the most mysterious. In this handsomely illustrated new book, Paul Mangelsdorf, perhaps the world's foremost expert on the corn plant, summarizes the work of a lifetime devoted to unraveling the enigma of corn.

This unique grain--it has no close counterpart elsewhere in the plant kingdom--exists only in association with man, and it survives only as a result of his intervention. Thus, the story of corn is in many ways a story about people. Combining the skills of scientist and storyteller, Professor Mangelsdorf in his search for the origin of corn takes the reader to archaeological digs in once-inhabited caves in Mexico and the United States Southwest, to the discovery of fossil pollen in drill cores taken deep below Mexico City, and to experimental fields where the great diversity of corn is revealed and where the plant is hybridized with its relatives teosinte and "Tripsacum."

Drawing upon the evidence from botany, genetics, cytology, archaeology, and history, the author seeks to evaluate various hypotheses on the origin of corn. He concludes that the ancestor of cultivated corn was a wild form of pod corn; that corn may have been domesticated more than once in both Mexico and South America from different geographical races of wild corn; and that hybridizations between corn and its various relatives have resulted in explosive evolution leading to a diversity of varieties and forms unmatched in any other crop plant.

This is a book about corn, but it is a book for biologists, agronomists, anthropologists, and historians, and for the interested layman who would like to know something about the grain which, "transformed, as three fourths of it is, into meat, milk, eggs, and other animal products, is our basic food plant, as it was of the people who preceded us in this hemisphere."

This detailed volume explores barley as both a crop and a model, with practical techniques such as crossing barley, a range of tissue culture methods, the preparation of barley tissues for different forms of microscopy, and the assessment of sensitivity to abiotic stresses. Efficient protocols are provided for transformation, TILLING, virus-induced gene silencing and genome editing. There is also particular emphasis on a range of protocols for genotyping and for the analysis of gene expression. Written for the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series, chapters include introductions on their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and easy-to-use, Barley: Methods and Protocols serves as a valuable reference volume for cereal researchers and breeders by providing detailed protocols covering important traditional skills such as crossing and tissue culture through to the latest technologies for genotyping, expression analysis, and genome editing.

When one is privileged to participate long enough in a professional capacity, certain trends may be observed in the dynamics of how challenges are met or how problems are solved. Agricultural research is no exception in view of how the plant sciences have moved forward in the past 30 years. For example, the once grand but now nearly forgotten art of whole plant physiology has given way almost completely to the more sophisticated realm of molecular biology. What once was the American Society of Plant Physiologists' is now the American Society of Plant Molecular Biology; a democratic decision to indemnify efforts to go beyond the limits of the classical science and actually begin to understand the underlying biological basis for genetic regulation of metabolic mechanisms in plants. Yet, as new technologies open windows of light on the inner workings of biological processes, one might reminisce with faint nostalgia on days long past when the artisans of plant physiology, biochemistry, analytical chemistry and other scientific disciplines ebbed and waned in prominence. No intentional reference is made here regarding Darwinism; the plant sciences always have been extremely competitive. Technology is pivotal. Those who develop and/or implement innovative concepts typically are regarded as leaders in their respective fields. Each positive incremental step helps bring recognition and the impetus to push a scientific discipline forward with timely approaches to address relevant opportunities.

Soil is a complex body that exists as many types, each with diverse properties that may vary widely across time and space as a function of many factors. This complexity makes the evaluation of soil quality much more challenging than that of water or air quality. Evaluation of soil quality now considers environmental implications as well as economic productivity, seeking to be more holistic in its approach.
Thus, soil quality research draws from a wide range of disciplines, blending the approaches of biologists, physicists, chemists, ecologists, economists and agronomists, among others.
This book presents a broad perspective of soil quality that includes these various perspectives and gives a strong theoretical basis for the assessment of soil quality.
A short glossary provides definitions for terms used throughout the book.

Written by international authorities in agronomy, Volume 61 contains five comprehensive reviews covering key contemporary topics on crop and soil sciences. As always, the topics are varied and exemplary of the array of subject matter covered by this long-running serial. In this volume, a definitive treatise on dynamic conservation of plant genetic resources is included, as is an environmentally timely update on coal surface mine reclamation practices; contemporary and thorough reviews of diffusion in the soil-plant system, dorminancy, germinability, and germination in crop and weed seeds, and control of soil-borne plant pests. With this latest volume, Advances in Agronomy continues to be recognized as a leading reference and as a first-rate source of the latest research in agronomy, crop science, and soil science.
Key Features
* The control of soil-borne plant pests
* Ion-diffusion in the soil-plant system
* Dormancy, germinability, and germination in crop and weed seeds
* Dynamic conservation of plant genetic resources
* Coal surface mine reclamation

This volume presents a collection of tools currently used for the characterization of rust, the host plant wheat, and their interactions. This book is divided into five parts: Parts I and II discuss advanced techniques for characterizing rust pathogens in rust surveillance, genotyping, and molecular pathogenicity; Part III describes protocols for genetic analysis of rust resistance; Part IV covers methods on rust resistance gene cloning; and Part V talks about the isolation and screening of bacterial endophytes as biocontrol agents for rust disease management. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Cutting-edge and authoritative, Wheat Rust Disease: Methods and Protocols is a valuable resource for both established and novel wheat rust researchers and also the plant science and microbial research community.

Cinnamon is the common name for the spice obtained from the dried inner bark of several species of the genus Cinnamomum in the Lauraceae family. In world trade, Cinnamomum cassia (L.) J. Presl Cinnamomum burmannii dominate, but it is of a different quality to 'true' or 'Ceylon' cinnamon produced from Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume (C. verum J. Presl), with the latter much easier to process, giving a more delicate, sweeter flavor with nuances of clove, but more importantly with only traces (often below detection thresholds) of coumarin, compared with 5-7 g/kg in other species. Cinnamon has been a popular and expensive spice in many civilizations, including ancient Egypt, Rome and in 14th and 15th century Europe, where it was used primarily to preserve meat for its antibacterial properties, fine aroma and flavor. Ancient Egyptians used cinnamon in mummification process due to its antibacterial properties and fragrance. The quest for cinnamon brought many explorers to Ceylon, whose ancient history is intertwined with the cinnamon trade. Ancient Egyptians and Romans used cinnamon as a valued spice and as an incense. In recent years, much research has been conducted in crop improvement, processing and value addition in cinnamon. In addition to direct use as a condiment/spice, cinnamon has found a multitude of uses in the food and beverage, traditional medicine, pharmacology, nutraceutical and cosmetics industries. Ceylon cinnamon is unique in that oils distilled from the bark (major constituents are cinnamaldehyde and oleoresins), leaf (eugenol is the major constituent used in dentistry, perfumes, flavorings and as an antioxidant) and roots (camphor) have different industrial uses. Cinnamaldehyde is now a proven natural bactericide widely used in food and beverage industry, effective against Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli. Thus, it has become an important natural component of organic fruit and vegetable juices to enhance microbial safety of these nutritious beverages. Because of its manifold uses, cinnamon is an important crop. There have been many recent publications on its ethnobotany, genetics, crop improvement, agronomy, processing, biotechnology, chemistry, food and medicinal uses, and industrial applications. However, one book condensing all these findings is lacking. Our publication, with chapters devoted to all these aspects of cinnamon written by experts in these fields, condenses current knowledge into a single source and contribute to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge and technology. Contributors to the book constitute internationally renowned senior scientists and academics with hands-on experience as well as movers and shakers of industry, thereby striking a right balance between theory and practice. Therefore it is a valuable source for students, teachers, scientists, planners policy makers, practicing agriculturists and industrialists, and a prized acquisition to any library in higher education institutions, R & D institutions and public and private sector institutions in agriculture and allied fields.