This book will shed light on the effect of salt stress on plants development, proteomics, genomics, genetic engineering, and plant adaptations, among other topics. Understanding the molecular basis will be helpful in developing selection strategies for improving salinity tolerance. The book will cover around 25 chapters with contributors from all over the world.

Recent studies have revealed remarkable complexity and diversity in orchid-pollinator relationships. These studies comprise a vast literature currently scattered in numerous, often obscure, journals and books. The Pollination Biology of North American Orchids brings together, for the first time, a comprehensive treatment of this information for all native and introduced North American orchids found north of Mexico and Florida. It provides detailed information on genetic compatibility, breeding systems, pollinators, pollination mechanisms, fruiting success, and limiting factors for each species. Distribution, habitat, and floral morphology are also summarized. In addition, detailed line drawings emphasize orchid reproductive organs and their adaptation to known pollinators. This, the second of two volumes, treats the subfamily Orchidoideae with the tribe Cranichideae. This is followed by examination of the seven North American tribes of subfamily Epidendroideae and the single North American tribe of subfamily Vanilloideae. The Pollination Biology of North American Orchids will be of interest to both regional and international audiences including: Researchers and students in this field of study who are currently required to search through the scattered literature to obtain the information gathered here. Researchers and students in related fields with an interest in the co-evolution of plants and insects. Conservation specialists who need to understand both the details of orchid reproduction and the identity of primary pollinators in order to properly manage the land for both. Orchid breeders who require accurate and current information on orchid breeding systems. General readers with an interest in orchid biology. Charles Argue, Ph.D., is a plant biologist at the University of Minnesota specializing in the study of pollen grains. His articles have appeared in numerous journals including the American Journal of Botany, International Journal of Plant Sciences (formerly Botanical Gazette), Botany (formerly Canadian Journal of Botany), Grana, Pollen et Spores, North American Native Orchid Journal, The Native Orchid Conference Journal, Fremontia, and as chapters in a number of books. .

Major world oil crops and their products are among the most valuable commodity in today's world trade. Over the past couple of decades, oilseed production has increased to become the most important world sources of vegetable oils, in response to the rising world population and living standard. Recent technological advances made in breeding major world oil crops have led to higher production and improved product quality.This comprehensive volume encompasses recent innovations and practice in the production and use of different oil crops, including Brassica, Sunflower, Safflower, Cottonseed, Castor, Olive, Coconut, Oilpalm, Sesame, Groundnut, and Soybean. The contributors are leading specialists from different countries of the world. Much of the literature available on these crops is not up-to-date; hence this volume is a ready reference for researchers, breeders, biotechnologists, industrialists, and nutritionists. Dr. Surinder Kumpar Gupta, born in 1959, is currently working as Professor/Chief Scientist (Oilseeds) Plant Breeding & Genetics and Nodal officer in the School of Biotechnology, S K University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology. He holds a brilliant academic and service record and has been devoted to research on Oilseed Brassicas for nearly two decades. He obtained his post-graduate degree and PhD from Punjab Agricultural University. He is a recipient of a post-doctoral Fellowship in Plant Biotechnology and has published more than 100 research papers in esteemed national and international journals, mostly on Brassicas. He has already developed five varieties of rapeseed-mustard, and has written two books and edited three volumes on rapeseed & mustard breeding. For his excellent scientific endeavors, he has been conferred the 'Young Scientists Award: 1993-1994' by the State Department of Science & Technology.

The perception that civilization is crossing a period of Global Climatic Changes that can seriously threaten our lifestyle, along with energy security and the search for prosperity, are the main drivers that are pushing men to use more biomass as a source of energy. It will be crucial that such intent will include a large parcel of sustainability so that more renewable energy becomes available for populations. Because large amounts of energy are "hidden" in carbon polymers made by plants, notably carbohydrates, it is obvious that if technologies are developed to produce liquid fuels such as ethanol from carbohydrate polymers such as cellulose, men could significantly increase energy sustainability . This book reviews general aspects of biomass utilization for bioenergy production as well as strategies using biochemistry, molecular biology, chemistry and physics to disassemble plant cell walls. Recent discoveries of basic science under development in several laboratories in the world are reviewed by experts that have been intensively working with many aspects that will impact the development of the technology of production of cellulosic ethanol.

Environmental conditions and changes, irrespective of source, cause a variety of stresses, one of the most prevalent of which is salt stress. Excess amount of salt in the soil adversely affects plant growth and development, and impairs production. Nearly 20% of the world's cultivated area and nearly half of the world's irrigated lands are affected by salinity. Processes such as seed germination, seedling growth and vigour, vegetative growth, flowering and fruit set are adversely affected by high salt concentration, ultimately causing diminished economic yield and also quality of produce. Most plants cannot tolerate salt-stress. High salt concentrations decrease the osmotic potential of soil solution, creating a water stress in plants and severe ion toxicity. The interactions of salts with mineral nutrition may result in nutrient imbalances and deficiencies. The consequence of all these can ultimately lead to plant death as a result of growth arrest and molecular damage. To achieve salt-tolerance, the foremost task is either to prevent or alleviate the damage, or to re-establish homeostatic conditions in the new stressful environment. Barring a few exceptions, the conventional breeding techniques have been unsuccessful in transferring the salt-tolerance trait to the target species. A host of genes encoding different structural and regulatory proteins have been used over the past 5-6 years for the development of a range of abiotic stress-tolerant plants. It has been shown that using regulatory genes is a more effective approach for developing stress-tolerant plants. Thus, understanding the molecular basis will be helpful in developing selection strategies for improving salinity tolerance. This book will shed light on the effect of salt stress on plants development, proteomics, genomics, genetic engineering, and plant adaptations, among other topics. The book will cover around 25 chapters with contributors from all over the world.

The book will be a broad and comprehensive look on Jatropha until the details since the book is being contributed by international experts worldwide that have already published works in the international press of Science. Illustrations, tables geographic maps, GPS location, etc are added by each contributors according to the feeling they have concerning what they think their contribution should be. This book will benefit the scientific community immensely. Being aware of any challenges related to Jatropha, i.e. (i) its economy in Asia (India, China) and South America (Brazil), (ii) basics of biofuel technology, (iii) physiology, (iv) farming, (v) byproducts, (vi) biotechnology, (vii) genetic resource (germplasm) and their benefit for the crop by genetic transfer, (viii) genetic map, (ix) comparative genetics, (x) genomics. Breeders and technologist will have access to a complete digested view on Jatropha to decide where and how they should move on with their investigations.

Jatropha curcas or Physic Nut is a small tree (bush plant) that produces fruits under tropical climate. The fruits contained seed that are ~40% oil rich. This oil is excellent for biodiesel. The bush is a now new coming crop because it may cope with harsh environmental conditions such as semi-aridity and poor land. It is considered as one alternative for climate mitigation that does not compete with arable land normally dedicated to food crop and can be used to regain degraded land or fight desertification. This bush has been considered seriously by the international community only recently (~2006-2008), but worldwide scientists did an outstanding job to drawn Jatropha out of its semi-wild status and bring it on the industrial scene. Problems remains, but we have now a comprehensive picture of this crop and almost every technological challenged were addressed. From now, the job will have to concentrate on breeding in order to domesticate this species. Therefore, it is the right time to sum up worldwide contributions in a comprehensive book with a breeding looking to improve the chance of this plant to stabilize as a crop and to fulfil with the expectations that humans invested in it. A book with this perspective will help international community to give a step on. The book will be a broad and comprehensive look on Jatropha until the details since the book is being contributed by international experts worldwide that have already published works in the international press of Science. Illustrations, tables geographic maps, GPS location, etc are added by each contributors according to the feeling they have concerning what they think their contribution should be.

The present volume presents essential information on advancements in oilseed production, processing and utilization. Advances in the technology of seed processing to produce oil and oil quality for edible and industrial applications are well presented, followed by hybrid technology, biotechnology, oil technology and meal quality for animal nutrition. The following areas are also covered: the potential for oil in developing biodiesel markets, fatty acid long chains and their derivative, pollination management, and safety of pollinators from harmful effects of pesticides. This volume also includes an economic assessment of oilseed integrated pest management (IPM) programs in different regions of the world.

Dr. Surinder Kumar Gupta is Professor/Chief Scientist (Oilseeds) Plant Breeding & Genetics and Nodal officer in School of Biotechnology, S K University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Chatha, Jammu-India. He holds a distinguished academic and service record and has been devoted primarily to research on oilseed Brassicas for nearly two decades. He has written two books on plant breeding and edited three volumes, one on Recent Advances in Oilseed Brassicas, Kalyani Publishers, New Delhi, India, second on Rapeseed Breeding-Advances in Botanical Research, Vol. 45, Academic Press, Elsevier Publishers and third on Biology and Breeding of crucifers, CRC Publishers, Taylor and Francis Group.

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The book inculcates a holistic approach to improve crop productivity and quality for ensuring food security and nutrition to all. This warrants to identify various stress conditions prevalent globally and tailor crop adaptability and productivity to the maximum accordingly, employing physio-molecular modern tools and techniques with judicious amalgamation with conventional crop husbandry. As a result, the book chapters encompass diverse environmental factors, internal physio-molecular processes and their modulations with a final goal of expanding area under cultivation by utilization of constraint terrains of poor site quality and augmenting sustainable crop productivity and quality on the face of rapidly changing climate. The book includes role of plant hormones, nano-sensors, nanomaterials etc. in stress tolerance responses, capturing recent advancement in the field of stress tolerance, enlarging scope of coverage by gleaning modern literature and providing glimpses of futuristic scenario of agriculture practices that can render 'balance staple food rich in nutrition, vitamins and minerals' to teeming billions of global human populations. Thus, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the role of stress environment and understanding stress physiology for developing stress tolerant crops. The book covers current knowledge and future prospects to achieve enhanced food security under stress environment of crops. The renowned contributors elegantly crafted each chapter, suited alike to both classroom texts for graduate students and reference material for researchers. The language and style are simple and lucid with liberal use of illustrations. This book should be on the shelf of university/ personal libraries for inquisitive students and enlightened researchers.

This book provides an overview of the recent advancements for plant scientists with a research focus on phytohormones and their responses (nature, occurrence, and functions) in plant cells. This book focuses on the role of phytohormones in biosynthesis, plant sexual reproduction, seed germination and fruit development and ripening. It further highlights the roles of different phytohormones on signaling pathways as well as on photoperiodism/Gravitropism/Thigmotropism. The volume also explores the role of phytohormones in gene expression and plant melatonin and serotonin and covers how plant hormones react in case of stress/defence response (metals/metalloids/pathogen). Last but not least, this volume also discusses phytohormones in the context of new regulatory molecules such as Nitric oxide, hydrogen sulfide, melatonin.

Lupins have until recently remained wild or semi-domesticated species of minor interest to agriculture, although their value as a rotation crop was noted 2,000 years ago. However, with the advent of the science of genetics in the early twentieth century, full domestication of Lupinus species for use as crops was begun, by the combination of favourable genes such as those for low alkaloid content, non-shattering pods and soft seeds. As a result several lupin species have become an important part of temperate farming systems as a high protein crop for both animal and human consumption. This book gives an authoritative account of the history, distribution and taxonomy of Lupinus species and the current knowledge of all aspects of their agronomy and impact on agriculture, including breeding, genetics and biotechnology, nutrition, nitrogen fixation, transport physiology, toxins, stress responses, pests and diseases, agronomy and farming systems, composition and food uses, economic value and trade. Contributions are made by researchers in Australia and Europe who have had key roles in lupin research. The book is essential reading for botanists, agronomists, plant breeders and geneticists involved with lupins and other grain legumes or with an interest in crop domestication and evolution. It also provides important information for lecturers and students of agriculture and for professionals in the livestock and food industries.

Fresh concepts in the study of seed dispersal are spurring a host of exciting new questions, new answers to old questions, new methods and approaches, and a reinvigoration of the field.Seed Dispersal: Theory and its Application in a Changing World presents both recent advances and reviews of current knowledge demonstrating the vigour and vibrancy of the field. It provides new perspectives and directions at a time when efforts to meet growing environmental challenges threatening natural systems are of utmost importance.

In the past 20 years, there has been a revolution in plant sciences, as new methods of molecular biology and biophysics have been applied to investigate environmental stress, particularly desiccation tolerance. Today, there is a good level of understanding of how plant cells cope with extreme water stress. This book is divided into four sections, dealing with 1) the technical background to desiccation tolerance studies, 2) the frequency and levels of dehydration stress tolerance in biological systems, 3) mechanisms of damage and tolerance, and 4) a brief prospect and retrospect. It covers orthodox and recalcitrant seeds, pollen and spores, vegetative parts, and other plant tissues.

Plant Breeding Reviews is an ongoing series presenting state-of-the art review articles on research in plant genetics, especially the breeding of commercially important crops. Articles perform the valuable function of collecting, comparing, and contrasting the primary journal literature in order to form an overview of the topic. This detailed analysis bridges the gap between the specialized researcher and the broader community of plant scientists.

Many of the crops widely grown today stem from a very narrow genetic base and so understanding and preserving crop genetic resources is vital to the security of food systems worldwide. This work presents state-of-the-art reviews on plant genetics and the breeding of all types of crops by both traditional means and molecular methods. With emphasis on methodology, understanding crop genetics, and applications to major crops, it covers a wide range of crops including row crops, fruits, vegetables, nuts and trees grown for timber and pulp.

"Plant Breeding Reviews" presents state-of-the-art reviews on plant genetics and the breeding of all types of crops by both traditional means and molecular methods. Many of the crops widely grown today stem from a very narrow genetic base; understanding and preserving crop genetic resources is vital to the security of food systems worldwide. The emphasis of the series is on methodology, a fundamental understanding of crop genetics, and applications to major crops. It is a serial title that appears in the form of one volume per year. Articles perform the function of collecting, comparing, and contrasting the primary journal literature in order to form an overview of the topic. This detailed analysis aims to bridge the gap between the specialized researcher and the broader community of plant scientists. The series is particularly important at this time when the methods of molecular biology are leading to genetically-engineered crops, and when the supply of wild varieties of many crops are threatened.

This work presents state-of-the-art overviews on topics relating to the breeding of agriculturally and horticulturally important plants. It is a series that appears in the form of one or more hardbound volumes per year. The text monitors developments in plant breeding research and covers major field crops, horticultural crops and specialities such as mushrooms and nuts. It also includes trees grown for timber and pulp.

Plant Breeding Reviews is an ongoing series presenting state-of-the art review articles on research in plant genetics, especially the breeding of commercially important crops. Articles perform the valuable function of collecting, comparing, and contrasting the primary journal literature in order to form an overview of the topic. This detailed analysis bridges the gap between the specialized researcher and the broader community of plant scientists.

Seeds of Amazonian Plants is the first field guide to treat the extraordinary diversity of seeds and diaspores of plants commonly encountered in the Amazon and other lowland moist forests of the American tropics. This stunningly illustrated guide features an easy-to-use whole-plant approach to seed identification that provides detailed descriptions not only of the seeds but also of the habit, trunk, bark, leaves, infructescence, and fruit of Amazonian plants, as well as information about the known uses and distribution of each genus. Presenting these descriptions together with 750 full-color photos and a unique identification key, this premier field guide enables users to identify seeds of 544 genera and 131 families of plants. * The most comprehensive field guide to Amazonian seeds * Features 750 full-color photos that make identification easy * Covers 544 genera and 131 families of Amazonian plants * Describes seeds, habit, trunk, bark, leaves, infructescence, and fruit * Includes unique seed identification key * Compact, portable, and beautifully illustrated--the ideal field guide

An authoritative text/reference on the structure and development of seed plants. Presents the latest concepts in plant anatomy through experimental, histochemical, and ultrastructural approaches to the study of biological material. Includes new concepts and terms; expanded sections on flower, fruit, and seed; and a new description of characters used in keying out woods.

The book is a comprehensive compilation of the most recent advances in the practical approach of the use of microbial probiotics for agriculture. Unlike the rest of the publications about biofertilizers, this book bridges the gap between the lab studies (molecular, physiological, omics, etc.) and the agronomic application.

An understanding of crop physiology and ecophysiology enables the horticulturist to manipulate a plant's metabolism towards the production of compounds that are beneficial for human health when that plant is part of the diet or the source of phytopharmaceutical compounds. The first part of the book introduces the concept of Controlled Environment Horticulture as a horticultural production technique used to maximize yields via the optimization of access to growing factors. The second part describes the use of this production technique in order to induce stress responses in the plant via the modulation of these growing factors and, importantly, the way that this manipulation induces defence reactions in the plant resulting in the production of compounds beneficial for human health. The third part provides guidance for the implementation of this knowledge in horticultural production.

How do plants, even if still buried underground, know that it's their time to bloom? What signals them to begin the challenging task of making flowers, and how do they make the variety of flower shapes, colours, and scents? What kind of instructions does the plant carry? Flowers enrich the beauty of meadows and gardens, but of course, they are not there simply to please us. Biologically, blossoms form a critical aspect of the reproductive cycle of many plants. In this book, the distinguished scientist Maxine Singer explains what we have pieced together about the genetics behind flowering. She describes in a clear and accessible account the key genes which, regulated by other genes, modulated by epigenetic effects, and responding to environmental cues, cause plants to flower at a particular time, and define the variety of flowers. The remarkably intricate processes involved in making flowers have evolved in nature alongside the pollinating birds and insects that the flowers must attract if there is to be another generation. The processes involved in flowering have only been unravelled in the past twenty years, and the implications for ensuring production of food, including fruits and seeds, are profound. This is cutting-edge science, and we have much still to learn, but the story being revealed that lies behind the flowers in our gardens, parks, and fields is proving astonishing.

The use of inducible gene expression systems is a rapidly developing area of plant molecular biological research. There is considerable interest in the use of these systems as research tools, not only because they allow expression of genes which may be, for example, developmentally lethal, but also because they allow for controlled experiments to be performed in a true isogenic background. They also have the potential to provide a means by which desired characters are expressed in field-based systems in the future.

Plant Breeding Reviews presents state--of--the--art reviews on plant genetics and the breeding of all types of crops by both traditional means and molecular methods. Many of the crops widely grown today stem from a very narrow genetic base; understanding and preserving crop genetic resources is vital to the security of food systems worldwide. The emphasis of the series is on methodology, a fundamental understanding of crop genetics, and applications to major crops. It is a serial title that appears in the form of one or two volumes per year.