This book offers a range of environmentally benign molecular mechanisms which are safer alternative strategies for effective insect pest management. In modern era of biotechnology, there has been much advancement in the field of molecular biology, where many more techniques have evolved which can be helpful in the field of pest management too. Plant resistance, development of transgenic plants, and many more techniques are being considered the panacea to pest problems. On the other hand, there are wide spread concerns of the safety of biotechnological interventions with nontarget organisms including humans. While the world stands divided on the ethical issues of these approaches and the many safety concerns, scientists believe that well thought of biotechnological interventions are probably the only safest ways possible for reducing pest attacks on crops. It explores various techniques and aspects related to molecular pathways for crop pest control. This book is a useful resource for postgraduate students and researchers of agriculture sciences, plant pathology and plant physiology. It is also useful for policy planners in agriculture.

This book brings together specialized information on modern aspects of applied microbiology in pest management. In the last few decades, the humans have witnessed major advancements in Life Sciences, as a result several new and powerful tools and techniques have evolved. This has led to great advancements in microbial nutrition, genetics and their application in different fields. In modern era of biotechnology, the microbes have provided solutions to many of the human problems and necessities and thus serve as human and farmers' friends. The microbes have proved to be successful tools for the pest management. Similarly, there has been much advancement in the field of molecular biology, where many more techniques have evolved which can be helpful in the field of pest management too. Plant resistance, development of transgenic plants, and many more techniques are being considered the panacea to pest problems. On the other hand, there are wide spread concerns of the safety of these microbial and biotechnological interventions with nontarget organisms including humans. While the world stands divided on the ethical issues of these approaches and the many safety concerns, scientists believe that well thought of microbial and biotechnological interventions are probably the only safest ways possible for reducing pest attacks on crops. This is useful read for postgraduate students and teachers, plant protection practioners across the world and also useful for policy planners.

Published in 1895, this is the second edition of an original 1894 volume. It was co-authored by Edward Hamilton Acton (1862-1895) and Francis Darwin (1848-1925), a son of Charles Darwin, who worked with his father on a series of experiments dealing with plant movement. The text is the product of a course of instruction in the physiology of plants given at Cambridge University. To enable the students to carry out their work effectively written instructions were needed, and these instructions were elaborated to form the basis of the book. It is divided into two sections: section one deals with general physiology and is of a more elementary character; part two deals with the chemistry of metabolism and is necessarily more complicated. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in botany, science education or the history of science.

This book is designed to popularize Quinoa cereal among both scientific and food industry. Quinoa is an attractive candidate for protein replacement, has potential for futuristic biotechnological modifications, and is able to grow under many different abiotic stresses. To save the world from animal cruelty, quinoa emerges as a hero for vegans and vegetarians. This book deals with morphological features, life cycle, nutritional qualities, genetics, agronomic manipulations, ecological communications, stress tolerance mechanisms, and food applications of Chenopodium quinoa. Quinoa is a pseudo-cereal native to Andes Region in South America. Over time, it spread to many different regions worldwide and is emerging as protein-rich vegetarian food source. In order to cure malnutrition globally, it is important to channel this lesser-known grain to local cultivators. This can only be done through well-proven scientific data that supports its qualities. This book aims to do the same, while also giving an insight into the vast scope quinoa posses as an experimental crop. Its stress-tolerant abilities can inspire scientists to understand those mechanisms, further exploit them, and even introduce them into other stress-sensitive crops. In future, quinoa can be among the top sources that offer food security. Due to its adaptability, ease of cultivation, and rich output, sustainability can be achieved by regulating its breeding and growth. This book is of interest to researchers, teachers, agronomic cultivators, environmentalists, botanists, microbiologists, geneticists and food technologists. This book covers recent advances, challenges in cultivation, biology, nutrition, and agricultural science topics, suitable for both young learners and advanced scientists. Cultivators who want to know more about quinoa and introduce it into their agronomic applications will find helpful information from the text.

Plants, being sessile and autotrophic in nature, must cope with challenging environmental aberrations and therefore have evolved various responsive or defensive mechanisms including stress sensing mechanisms, antioxidant system, signaling pathways, secondary metabolites biosynthesis, and other defensive pathways among which accumulation of osmolytes or osmo-protectants is an important phenomenon. Osmolytes with organic chemical nature termed as compatible solutes are highly soluble compounds with no net charge at physiological pH and nontoxic at higher concentrations to plant cells. Compatible solutes in plants involve compounds like proline, glycine betaine, polyamines, trehalose, raffinose family oligosaccharides, fructans, gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), and sugar alcohols playing structural, physiological, biochemical, and signaling roles during normal plant growth and development. The current and sustaining problems of climate change and increasing world population has challenged global food security. To feed more than 9 billion, the estimated population by 2050, the yield of major crops needs to be increased 1.1-1.3% per year, which is mainly restricted by the yield ceiling. A major factor limiting the crop yield is the changing global environmental conditions which includes drought, salinity and extreme temperatures and are responsible for a reduction of crop yield in almost all the crop plants. This condition may worsen with a decrease in agricultural land or the loss of potential crop yields by 70%. Therefore, it is a challenging task for agricultural scientists to develop tolerant/resistant varieties against abiotic stresses. The development of stress tolerant plant varieties through conventional breeding is very slow due to complex multigene traits. Engineering compatible solutes biosynthesis by deciphering the mechanism behind the abiotic tolerance or accumulation in plants cell is a potential emerging strategy to mitigate adverse effects of abiotic stresses and increase global crop production. However, detailed information on compatible solutes, including their sensing/signaling, biosynthesis, regulatory components, underlying biochemical mechanisms, crosstalk with other signaling pathways, and transgenic development have not been compiled into a single resource. Our book intends to fill this unmet need, with insight from recent advances in compatible solutes research on agriculturally important crop plants.

This book covers the use and dynamics of potassium fertilizers in agriculture. It explores potassium dynamics in soil, phytoavailability, uptake and translocation in crop plants, impact of potassium fertilizers on quality of agricultural produce. Potassium is an essential plant nutrient that has long been overlooked in agriculture of many developing countries. In most of the agro-ecosystems of such countries, potassium balance is negative because its application seldom matches with crop removal. Agro-technicians lack enough skills and resources to promote the right source of fertilizer at the right rate, time and place to facilitate profitable farming. There is a need for farmers to update their farming practices so as to improve the crop yield and quality under unfavorable climatic conditions. Correct application of potassium fertilizers is directly linked with increased crop yield per unit land area in most of the developing countries. Therefore this book fills the gap in the information and provide the readers with latest updates on use of potassium fertilizers. This book contains latest information relevant for graduate students, progressive farmers, extension worker, early career researchers, and policy makers.

Medicinal flora plays an important role in health care systems across the world. Out of the half million flowering plants, around 50.000 species are valued for their therapeutic properties. During the last few decades, 20% of the world's population used plants and/or their derived products as a source of medicine. WHO stated that 80% population around the globe, specifically the rural communities, depend on medicinal plants for their basic healthcare needs. To this end, plant-based phytochemicals are known to have hepato-protective, anti-carcinogenic, anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antioxidant actions. This book is a guide to ~280 plant species of medicinal flora that demonstrates global relevance. Our goal is to share local knowledge about phytomedicines to a worldwide audience. It is an illustrated reference that documents and preserves the existing knowledge on these plant taxa, with a social and cultural (ethnobotanical) emphasis. This book also provides comprehensive and useful information about traditional uses of medicinal plants by the local communities for the treatment of various prevalent diseases. It contains comprehensive descriptions of each species including family, synonyms, English name, distribution, altitude, habitat, morphological description, life form, part used, mode of utilization, diseases category, recipes, other medicinal uses, phytochemical activity and toxicity.

This edited book provides knowledge about hemicelluloses biorefinery approaching production life cycle, circular economy, and valorization by obtaining value-added bioproducts and bioenergy. A special focus is dedicated to chemical and biochemical compounds produced from the hemicelluloses derivatives platform. Hemicelluloses are polysaccharides located into plant cell wall, with diverse chemical structures and properties. It is the second most spread organic polymer on nature and found in vast lignocellulosic materials from agro and industrial wastes, therefore, hemicelluloses are considered as abundant and renewable raw material/feedstock. Biorefinery concept contributes to hemicelluloses production associated with biomass industrial processes. Hemicelluloses are alternative sources of sugars for renewable fuels and as platform for chemicals production. This book reviews chemical processes for sugar production and degradation, obtaining of intermediate and final products, and challenges for pentose fermentation. Aspects of hemicelluloses chain chemical and enzymatic modifications are presented with focus on physicochemical properties improvement for bioplastic and biomaterial approaches. Hemicelluloses are presented as sources for advanced materials in biomedical and pharmaceutical uses, and as hydrogel for chemical and medicine deliveries. An interdisciplinary approach is needed to cover all the processes involving hemicelluloses, its conversion into final and intermediate value-added compounds, and bioenergy production. Covering this context, this book is of interest to teachers, students, researchers, and scientists dedicated to biomass valorization. This book is a knowledge source of basic aspects to advanced processing and application for graduate students, particularly. Besides, the book serves as additional reading material for undergraduate students (from different courses) with a deep interest in biomass and waste conversion, valorization, and chemical products from hemicelluloses.

In the modern world, to meet increasing energy demands we need to develop new technologies allowing us to use eco-friendly carbon-neutral energy sources. Solar energy as the most promising renewable source could be the way to solve that problem, but it is variable depending on day time and season. From this side, the understanding of photosynthesis process could be of significant help for us to develop effective strategies of solar energy capturing, conversion, and storage. Plants, algae, and cyanobacteria perform photosynthesis, annually producing around 100 billion tons of dry biomass. Presently, the detailed studies of photosynthetic system structure make functional investigations of the photosynthetic process available, allowing scientists to construct artificial systems for solar energy transduction. This book summarizes exciting achievements in understanding of photosynthetic structures and mechanisms of this process made by world leaders in photosynthesis field, and contains information about modern ideas in development of revolutionary new technologies of energy conversion. Organized according to the natural sequence of events occurring during photosynthesis, the book includes information of both photosynthetic structures and mechanisms and its applications in bioenergetics issues.

The prospect of future climate change has stimulated research into the physiological responses of plants to stress. Water is a key factor controlling the distribution and abundance of plants in nature and the efficient uptake and subsequent transport of water within the plant is critical in hot, dry regions. This book, based on a meeting which focused on the failure of the hydraulic pathway within the xylem, brings together contributions from a range of experts who have worked on the cavitation of water in the transport system. The phenomenon of cavitation, discovered only in the 1960s, is now becoming recognised as being widespread and, whilst its ecological significance is a matter for further research, many scientists consider than embolism in the xylem predisposes plants to further water stress. Cavitation and refilling may, therefore, hold the key to vegetational response to climatic warming and drying. This book will provide a valuable compendium of information for those working in the plant and environmental sciences as well as for those whose interests lie in the more applied disciplines of agriculture and forestry.

This edited book brings out a comprehensive collection of information on the modern omics-based research. The main focus of this book is to educate researchers about utility of omics-based technologies in rapid crop improvement. In last two decades, omics technologies have been utilized significantly in the area of plant sciences and has shown promising results. Omics technology has potential to address the challenge of food security in the near future. The comprehensive use of omics technology occurred in last two decades and helped greatly in the understanding of complex biological problems, improve crop productivity and ensure sustainable use of ecosystem services. This book is of interest to researchers and students of life sciences, biotechnology, plant biotechnology, agriculture, forestry, and environmental sciences. It is also a useful knowledge resource for national and international agricultural scientists.

Plant galls may be produced by a wide variety of organisms, from fungi to parasitic insects, on an equally wide variety of hosts. Their taxonomy is highly complex, as are the life cycles of the organisms associated with them. Yet, common as they are, plant galls are often poorly understood. This book brings together information from the diverse disciplines involved in the study of plant galls: ecology, evolution, molecular biology, physiology, and developmental biology. The work considers the latest issues, covering questions of classification, coevolution, ecology, physiology, and plant genetic engineering. As an up-to-date resource in an area of immense interest and debate, the book will enhance the quality of discussion surrounding these phenomena, across all disciplinary perspectives.

This book focuses on the effects of genotoxic agents causing oxidative stress in plants. The book explores different kind of chemicals which induces genotoxicity, their mechanism of action and effects on plant health. Impacts at the physiological and molecular levels are discussed. The book is of interest to teachers, researchers and plant scientists. Also the book serves as additional reading material for undergraduate and graduate students of agriculture, forestry, ecology, soil science, and environmental sciences. National and international agricultural scientists will also find this to be a useful read.

This textbook aims to describe the role of minerals in plant life cycle; how these nutrients are absorbed, distributed, stored; what functions each mineral plays and the disorders that their excess or absence may cause. From an agronomic perspective, such knowledge is key to boost crop production and improve its quality, and it also helps understand how to better manage fertilizers and prevent environmental issues. The book has focus on tropical agriculture and its specific demands, providing examples of major crops (such as sugarcane, soybeans, coffee etc), silviculture and pasture species.

This book collects comprehensive information on taxonomy, morphology, distribution, wood anatomy, wood properties and uses. It also discusses silvicultural aspects, agroforestry, pests and diseases, biotechnology, molecular studies, biosynthesis of oil, conservation, trade and commerce of Sandal wood. Sandalwood (Santalum album L.) is considered as one of the world's most valuable commercial timber and is known globally for its heartwood and oil. The book brings together systematic representation of information with illustrations, thus an all-inclusive reference and field guide for foresters, botanists, researchers, farmers, traders and environmentalists.

Molecular plant pathology has directly benefited from advances in modern molecular techniques. These techniques have been applied both to pathogen and plant, enhancing our understanding of the organisms themselves and of the complex interactions which determine compatibility between them and their host plants. This new book and its companion volume represent the first comprehensive guide to the latest molecular techniques as well as the established approaches to the subject. Detailed protocols are included which address a wide range of investigations from plant pathogen isolation and culture, through physiology and biochemistry, to techniques for localizing genes and their products within the cells of the infected plants. Topics in Volume I include pathogens and pathogen manipulation, nucleic acid isolation and hybridization techniques, analysis of gene expression, and in situ hybridization. Researchers in plant science, molecular biology, and related areas will find the two volumes of Molecular Plant Pathology to be an invaluable experimental resource for this exciting and fast moving field, providing a wealth of easy-to-follow protocols supported by expert advice and guidance.

This edited book is focused on antioxidant compounds and their biosynthesis, up-regulation, mechanism of action for selective bioactivity, targeted role and the advancement of their bioactive potential during plant-microbe interaction and other stress conditions. This book also emphasizes on the role of antioxidants in recruiting beneficial microbes in plant surroundings. Antioxidants have multiple biological roles in plants especially in the signalling pathway. These compounds are secondary metabolites produced besides the primary biosynthetic pathway and are associated with growth and development. Besides they also have special role to play during oxidative stress produced via abiotic stimulants or pathogen attack. This understanding of the biosynthesis, signaling and function of antioxidant compounds in plants during stress condition is helpful in restoring plant ecosystem productivity and improve plant responses to a wide range of stress conditions. This book is a useful compilation for researchers and academicians in botany, plant physiology, plant biochemistry and stress physiology. Also the book serves as reading material for undergraduate and graduate students of environmental sciences, agricultural sciences and other plant science courses.

The formation of galls - abnormal growths or swelling in a plant - may be induced by infection of the plant by bacteria or fungi, or attack from certain mites, nematodes or insects. This book provides comprehensive coverage of the biology of galls and their complex ecological etiology. The expert contributors address topics such as the effect of insect secretions on plant growth, the evolution and physiology of gall-inducing insects, patterns in gall development and induction, the role of nutritive cells, and many other key issues. This valuable work in cecidology will interest all biologists and botanists concerned with plant health, and entomologists working in the field of plant-insect relationships.

Diversity and Evolution of Land Plants provides a fresh and long overdue treatment of plant anatomy and morphology for the biology undergraduate of today. Setting aside the traditional plod through the plant taxa, the author adopts a problem-based functional approach, exploring plant diversity as a series of different solutions to the design problems facing plant life on land.

Global climate change is bound to create a number of abiotic and biotic stresses in the environment, which would affect the overall growth and productivity of plants. Like other living beings, plants have the ability to protect themselves by evolving various mechanisms against stresses, despite being sessile in nature. They manage to withstand extremes of temperature, drought, flooding, salinity, heavy metals, atmospheric pollution, toxic chemicals and a variety of living organisms, especially viruses, bacteria, fungi, nematodes, insects and arachnids and weeds. Incidence of abiotic stresses may alter the plant-pest interactions by enhancing susceptibility of plants to pathogenic organisms. These interactions often change plant response to abiotic stresses. Plant growth regulators modulate plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses, and regulate their growth and developmental cascades. A number of physiological and molecular processes that act together in a complex regulatory network, further manage these responses. Crosstalk between autophagy and hormones also occurs to develop tolerance in plants towards multiple abiotic stresses. Similarly, biostimulants, in combination with correct agronomic practices, have shown beneficial effects on plant metabolism due to the hormonal activity that stimulates different metabolic pathways. At the same time, they reduce the use of agrochemicals and impart tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress. Further, the use of bio- and nano-fertilizers seem to hold promise to improve the nutrient use efficiency and hence the plant yield under stressful environments. It has also been shown that the seed priming agents impart stress tolerance. Additionally, tolerance or resistance to stress may also be induced by using specific chemical compounds such as polyamines, proline, glycine betaine, hydrogen sulfide, silicon, -aminobutyric acid, -aminobutyric acid and so on. This book discusses the advances in plant performance under stressful conditions. It should be very useful to graduate students, researchers, and scientists in the fields of botanical science, crop science, agriculture, horticulture, ecological and environmental science.

Carbon stabilization involves to capturing carbon from the atmosphere and fix it in the forms soil organic carbon stock for a long period of time, it will be present to escape as a greenhouse gas in the form of carbon dioxide. Soil carbon storage is an important ecosystem service, resulting from interactions of several ecological processes. This process is primarily mediated by plants through photosynthesis, with carbon stored in the form of soil organic carbon. Soil carbon levels have reduced over decades of conversion of pristine ecosystems into agriculture landscape, which now offers the opportunity to store carbon from air into the soil. Carbon stabilization into the agricultural soils is a novel approach of research and offers promising reduction in the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. This book brings together all aspects of soil carbon sequestration and stabilization, with a special focus on diversity of microorganisms and management practices of soil in agricultural systems. It discusses the role of ecosystem functioning, recent and future prospects, soil microbial ecological studies, rhizosphere microflora, and organic matter in soil carbon stabilization. It also explores carbon transformation in soil, biological management and its genetics, microbial transformation of soil carbon, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPRs), and their role in sustainable agriculture. The book offers a spectrum of ideas of new technological inventions and fundamentals of soil sustainability. It will be suitable for teachers, researchers, and policymakers, undergraduate and graduate students of soil science, soil microbiology, agronomy, ecology, and environmental sciences

Magnitude and quality of life as well as sustainable human progress inescapably depend on the state of our environment. The environment, in essence, is a common resource of all the living organisms in the biosphere as well as a vivacious basis of the evolution of life on Earth. A sustainable future broods over a sustainable environment-an environment encompassing life-originating, life-supporting, and life-sustaining uniqueness. A deteriorating environment haplessly sets in appalling conditions leading to shrinkage of life and a halt in human progress. The current global environment scenario is extremely dismal. Environmental disruptions, largely owing to anthropogenic activities, are steadily leading to awful climate change. Horribly advancing toward mass extinction in the near or distant future and posing a threat to our Living Planet, the unabatedly ongoing climate change, in fact, is an unprecedented issue of human concern about life in the recorded human history. How to get rid of the environmental mess and resolve environmental issues leading to climate change mitigation is the foremost challenge facing humanity in our times. There are several measures the whole world is resorting to. They are primarily focused on cutting down excessive carbon emissions by means of development of technological alternatives, for example, increasing mechanical efficiencies and ever-more dependence on clean-energy sources. These are of great importance, but there is yet a natural phenomenon that has been, and will unceasingly be, pivotal to maintain climate order of the Earth. For it to phenomenally boost, we need to explore deeper aspects of environmental science. It is the environmental plant physiology that links us with deeper roots of life. Environmental Plant Physiology: Botanical Strategies for a Climate-Smart Planet attempts to assimilate a relatively new subject that helps us understand the very phenomenon of life that persists in the planet's environment and depends on, and is influenced by, a specific set of operating environmental factors. It is the subject that helps us understand adaptation mechanisms within a variety of habitats as well as the implications of the alterations of environmental factors on the inhabiting organisms, their populations, and communities. Further, this book can also be of vital importance for policy makers and organizations dealing with climate-related issues and committed to the cause of the earth. This book can be instrumental in formulating strategies that can lead us to a climate-smart planet. Features: * Provides ecological basis of environmental plant physiology * Discusses energy, nutrient, water, temperature, allelochemical, and altitude relations of plants * Reviews stress physiology of plants and plants' adaptations to the changing climate * Examines climate-change effects on plant physiology * Elucidates evolving botanical strategies for a climate-smart planet

This edited volume is a comprehensive account of plant diseases and insect pests, plant protection and management for various crops using microbial and biotechnological approaches. The book elucidates the role of biotechnology for the enhancement of crop productivity and management of bacterial and fungal diseases via eco-friendly methods. It discusses crop-pest/ pathogen interaction and utilizing this interaction in a beneficial and sustainable way. This book is of interest to teachers, researchers, plant scientists and plant pathologists. Also the book serves as additional reading material for undergraduate and graduate students of agriculture, forestry, ecology, soil science, and environmental sciences.

In the recent past, threats from climate change and unforeseeable environmental extremes to plant growth and productivity have consistently increased. The climate change-driven effects, especially from unpredictable environmental fluctuations, can result in an increased prevalence of abiotic and biotic stresses in plants. These stresses have slowed down the global yields of crop plants. On the other hand, food security for the rapidly growing human population in a sustainable ecosystem is a major concern of the present-day world. Thus, understanding the core developmental, physiological and molecular aspects that regulate plant growth and productivity in a challenging environment is a pivotal issue to be tackled by the scientific community dealing with sustainable agricultural and horticultural practices. Plants are influenced by the adverse environmental conditions at various levels, their different and diverse responses play a significant role in determining their growth, production and the overall geographical distribution. The chapters in this book focus on the biological mechanisms and fundamental principles that determine how different plant species grow, perform and interact with a challenging environment. This book covers a broad range of topics in plant science, including gene function, molecules, physiology, cell biology and plant ecology, to understand the functioning of plants under harsh environmental conditions. The book elucidates the physiological and molecular mechanisms in different plant species, ecophysiological interactions of plants, interplay between plant roots, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria, biosensors for monitoring stress, production of secondary metabolites, stress alleviation processes, and more.

Agronomic crops have been used to provide foods, beverages, fodders, fuels, medicines and industrial raw materials since the dawn of human civilization. Today, agronomic crops are being cultivated by employing scientific methods instead of traditional methods. However, in the current era of climate change, agronomic crops are subjected to various environmental stresses, which results in substantial yield loss. To meet the food demands of the ever-increasing global population, new technologies and management practices are being adopted to boost yield and maintain productivity under both normal and adverse conditions. Scientists are now exploring a variety of approaches to the sustainable production of agronomic crops, including varietal development, soil management, nutrient and water management, pest management, etc. Researchers have also made remarkable progress in developing stress tolerance in crops through different approaches. However, achieving optimal production to meet the increasing food demand is an open challenge. Although there have been numerous publications on the above-mentioned problems, and despite the extensive research being conducted on them, there is hardly any comprehensive book available. In response, this book offers a timely resource, addressing all aspects of production technologies, management practices and stress tolerance in agronomic crops in a single volume.