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.

Biological management of nutrient supply to plants is intrinsically more complex than the provision of nutrients as inorganic fertilizers. We need to know whether the nutrients released are retained or lost from the system, whether rates of decomposition can be manipulated to improve nutrient use efficiency, and how the various fractions of plant residues translate into pools of organic matter in soil. Only then can predictive models for nutrient release, plant uptake and soil organic matter dynamics be truly tested and validated. This book brings together contemporary ideas on the characterization and manipulation of plant quality and especially its role in soil organic matter formation and nutrient cycling. It contains work from the leading workers in both temperate and tropical systems. There are also contributions describing work outside decomposition in soil ecosystems, such as the work of plant biochemists and animal nutritionists, as research in these areas has provided many ideas and concepts used in plant quality analysis. A wide range of topics is covered from investigations at the molecular level through to management options for farmers in relation to optimising biological management of crop residues. The work presented in this volume is valuable to all those researching and managing the supply of nutrients to plants. It is important reading for soil scientists, plant physiologists and crop scientists.

For centuries orchids have been among the most popular of plant families, with thousands of species and hybrids cultivated worldwide for the diversity, beauty, and intricacy of their flowers. The Genera Orchidacearum series represents a robust and natural classification of the orchids, something that has eluded plant scientists and orchid enthusiasts for years. The editors, who are all distinguished orchid specialists, incorporate a wealth of new DNA data into a truly phylogenetic classification, identifying the areas and taxa that merit additional work. To this end, they have invited several international specialists to contribute in their particular areas of expertise. Each volume provides comprehensive coverage of one or two orchid subfamilies, and the series as a whole will be an indispensable reference tool for scientists, orchid breeders, and growers. Orchidaceae is the largest monocotyledon family and perhaps the largest plant family in terms of number of species, approximately 25,000. Although the fossil record is limited, active molecular research in recent years has unravelled many of the complexities and phylogenetics of this cosmopolitan plant family. This sixth and final volume treats 140 genera in tribes Dendrobieae and Vandeae of the largest subfamily, Epidendroideae, including some of the showiest orchids often used in hybridizing. Comprehensive treatments are provided for each genus, which include complete nomenclature, description, distribution (with map), anatomy, palynology, cytogenetics, phytochemistry, phylogenetics, pollination, ecology, and economic uses. Cultivation notes are included for those genera known to be in hobbyist collections. Genera are beautifully illustrated with line drawings and colour photographs. An Addendum updates a few generic accounts published in past volumes. A cumulative glossary, list of generic synonyms with their equivalents, and list of all series contributors round out this final volume in the series.

The flowering plants now dominate the terrestrial ecosystems of the planet, and there are good reasons for supposing that the flower itself has been a major contributing factor to the spread of the Angiosperms. The flowers of higher plants not only contain the organs of plant reproduction but are of fundamental importance in giving rise to fruits and seeds which constitute a major component of the human diet.
This volume opens with a chapter describing a model for the evolution of the Angiosperm flower. Chapters 2 to 5 describe the core development of the flower and include floral induction, floral pattering and organ initiation, floral shape and size, and inflorescence architecture. Chapters 6 to 8 focus on more specialised aspects of floral development: monoecy, cytoplasmic male sterility and flowering in perennials. Chapters 9 and 10 address more functional aspects: flower colour and scent. The book concludes, appropriately, with a chapter on flower senescence.
Applied aspects are stressed wherever appropriate, and the book is directed at researchers and professionals in plant genetics, developmental and molecular biology.
The volume has been designed to complement an earlier volume in our Annual Plant Reviews series, O'Neill, S. D. and Roberts, J. A. (2002) Plant Reproduction.

Containing contributions from experts from the USA, Europe and New Zealand, this book provides an overview of the molecular mechanisms associated with flowering. The first edition was published in 1993 as The Molecular Biology of Flowering. The second edition has been thoroughly revised and updated to cover the major advances that have been made in the area in the last thirteen years. It has also been extended to examine the new commercial opportunities provided by biotechnology. It explores three main themes: the external and internal regulation of flowering, floral development, and fertilisation and gametophyte development, and includes new chapters on the evolution of flowers, floral senescence and apomixis.

Outlining successful breeding techniques to augment the yields of the world's major crops, this reference analyzes the physiological and genetic basis for past and potential future increases in crop yields.;Covering crops with wide differences in morphology, photosynthetic rates, and nitrogen metabolisms, Genetic Improvement of Field Crops: investigates the changes produced by breeders in the physiological attributes affecting wheat grain yield and nitrogen content during the last century; discusses those crop characteristics of oats that have already been altered or might be manipulated through breeding to further increase yield potential; describes several genetic factors responsible for both yield potential and stress resistance in barley; offers insights into the relationship between increases in the yield potential and stress tolerance of corn; examines the evolution of sunflower crop yields and yield stability and estimates the contribution of improved cultivars; evaluates the effects of breeding on tuber characteristics related to the crop growth and yield of the potato; elucidates the possibilities for simultaneous improvement of yield and fiber strength in cotton; and identifies the features to be considered in the development of high yielding varieties of rice for different agricultural systems.;Providing nearly 1600 key literature citations allowing further in-depth study of particular topics, Genetic Improvement of Field Crops is for plant physiologists and breeders, crop and agricultural scientists, agronomists, biochemists, geneticists, biotechnologists, microbiologists, and upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in these disciplines.

Improvements in adaptation and maturity leading to greater yield are the most important criteria for the acceptance of a new crop cultivar, since it is the yield which dictates the economic value of the crop. Therefore, yield improvement is one goal of virtually every crop breeding program. Many such programs have tended to concentrate on identifying the genetic traits responsible for higher yield and selecting each of them in the later stages of the breeding cycle. However, selection for yield per se is still the most effective method, since it is a combination of traits, operating within the limits of the system, which finally determines yield. This book presents a whole-system, or holistic viewpoint for the improvement of adaptation, maturity and yield. Central to its thesis is recognition that system-established changes in levels of the components of the plant system, within a constant capacity, i.e. within the limitations of the system, determines yield and other cultivar characteristics. It goes on to describe how this can improve our understanding of plant systems and enable breeders to maximize performance under prevailing field conditions. Based principally on 25 years of research by the authors, the ideas presented in this book are essential reading for crop physiologists and plant breeders.

This book reports the latest research and successful industrial case studies on sustainable technologies in the oil palm industry, ranging from plantation, processing to waste handling. It covers the latest developments on harvesting, refining, nanomaterial production, aviation biofuel, biomass supply chain and waste treatment and handling. This book is a continuation of a previously published Springer book 'Green Technologies for the Oil Palm Industry' and is intended for industrial practitioners and academics interested in sustainable technologies for palm oil milling processes.

Plant biotechnology applies to three major areas of plants and their uses: (1) control of plant growth and development; (2) protection of plants against biotic and abiotic stresses; and (3) expansion of ways by which specialty foods, biochemicals, and pharmaceuticals are produced. The topic of recent advances in plant biotechnology is ripe for consideration because of the rapid developments in this ?eld that have revolutionized our concepts of sustainable food production, cost-effective alt- native energy strategies, environmental bioremediation, and production of pla- derived medicines through plant cell biotechnology. Many of the more traditional approaches to plant biotechnology are woefully out of date and even obsolete. Fresh approaches are therefore required. To this end, we have brought together a group of contributors who address the most recent advances in plant biotechnology and what they mean for human progress, and hopefully, a more sustainable future. Achievements today in plant biotechnology have already surpassed all previous expectations. These are based on promising accomplishments in the last several decades and the fact that plant biotechnology has emerged as an exciting area of research by creating unprecedented opportunities for the manipulation of biological systems. In connection with its recent advances, plant biotechnology now allows for the transfer of a greater variety of genetic information in a more precise, controlled manner. The potential for improving plant productivity and its proper use in agric- ture relies largely on newly developed DNA biotechnology and molecular markers.

As increasing global population and continuing economic development ensure the need for further production and cultivation of maize, the necessity of the application of transgenic technology to this model species and crop plant grows steadily. In Transgenic Maize: Methods and Protocols, experts in the various disciplines of the field contribute readily reproducible protocols covering such topics as transformation methods, transgenic maize in research, the analysis of transgenic plants, and breeding with transgenes. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology(TM) series format, the chapters present brief introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step laboratory protocols, and notes on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.

Cutting-edge and easy to use, Transgenic Maize: Methods and Protocols will greatly aid researchers wishing to use these procedures in their own laboratories, and will provide readers with a better understanding of the experiments being performed by cooperators or fee-for-service labs.

This book delves in detail the intimate functioning of the flower, whether it is on the biochemical, cellular, molecular, or the organism scale. It explains the form and function of the flower, not only from the physiology and developmental biology as-pects, but also from ecology and evolutionary sciences, integrating genetic, demo-graphic, and biogeographical perspectives.

This book focuses on the production technology of temperate nuts. It explores cultivar and plant improvement, development and selection of rootstocks, plant–water relations and irrigation, canopy architecture, and postharvest packaging of nut fruits. It also deals with organic approaches, biotechnological interventions, diseases, and pest management. Contributing authors address nut fruits such as walnut, pecan nut, chestnut, and hazel nut on different recent aspects. The development achieved in the fruit sector is indicative of the fact that there is growing demand of fruit produce. Temperate nuts with health benefits and market acceptability have best sources of fat, fiber, protein, and mineral. They provide dietary fiber, potassium, and a variety of health-protective bioactive compounds. Apart from the health benefits, production of temperate nuts improves the economy of the country as these are very good source of income and employment. In addition, there is wide diversification in the production pattern of nuts globally. Increased production technology such as hybrids, high-yielding selections/ varieties, improved propagation techniques, and increased use of fertilizers and manures have brought spectacular increase in the production of nut fruits. This book is of interest to teachers, scientists, researchers, and scholars. Also, the book serves as additional reading material for undergraduate and postgraduate students of agriculture and horticulture. Horticulture nurseries and orchard industries also find this to be a useful read.

This book covers important topics on various neglected and underutilised crops (vegetables, cereals, fruit crops). It gives an overview of the potential, availability of genetic and genomic resources, and the future prospects of these food crops. The book presents different chapters on the importance of underutilised crops with respect to sustainable agriculture and describes the approaches that must be followed for improving the yield and production of these crops. It covers a wide range of food crops such as millet, buckwheat, underutilised spices, underutilised vegetables and underutilised fruit crops. It also provides insights on what smart foods are? And, whether these neglected crops qualify as smart foods? This up-to-date and informative book is meant for food scientists, geneticists, breeders and biotechnologists. It is of interest to students, researchers and course instructors in these fields.

Microbes are ubiquitous in nature, and plant-microbe interactions are a key strategy for colonizing diverse habitats. The plant microbiome (epiphytic, endophytic and rhizospheric) plays an important role in plant growth and development and soil health. Further, rhizospheric soil is a valuable natural resource, hosting hotspots of microbes, and is vital in the maintenance of global nutrient balance and ecosystem function. The term endophytic microbes refers to those microorganisms that colonize the interior the plants. The phyllosphere is a common niche for synergism between microbes and plants and includes the leaf surface. The diverse group of microbes are key components of soil-plant systems, and where they are engaged in an extensive network of interactions in the rhizosphere/endophytic/phyllospheric they have emerged as an important and promising tool for sustainable agriculture. Plant microbiomes help to directly or indirectly promote plant growth using plant growth promoting attributes, and could potentially be used as biofertilizers/bioinoculants in place of chemical fertilizers. This book allows readers to gain an understanding of microbial diversity associated with plant systems and their role in plant growth, and soil health. Offering an overview of the state of the art in plant microbiomes and their potential biotechnological applications in agriculture and allied sectors, it is a valuable resource for scientists, researchers and students in the field of microbiology, biotechnology, agriculture, molecular biology, environmental biology and related subjects.

This is a comprehensive overview of bionanotechnology to students in nanotechnology, biotechnology, bionanotechnology, related fields such as biology, chemistry, physics, and materials science and also everyone who is interested in this research area. It describes the definition of bionanomaterials, how they can be synthesized, characterized and applied in different fields. The current status and future of bionanotechnology, as well as its advantages and limitations, are comprehensively discussed throughout the book. This is an entry-level book which is easy for readers to understand its contents. In this book, we tried to identify the definition of bionanotechnology. Briefly, Bionanotechnology is the emerging research field that comes from the intersection of nanotechnology and biotechnology. Nanotechnology is referring to the design, development, and application of materials which at least one dimension at nanometer scale meanwhile biotechnology is developed based on knowledge about living systems and organisms to create or improve different products. The association of nanotechnology and biotechnology pave a way to develop a hybrid technology with unique features. Thus, this novel technology will be used to improve our living standard in different aspects from developing new medicine, food, and functional cosmetics, introducing new methods to analyze and treat cancer to protect environmental problems.

Plant embryology, dealing with the regularities of initiation and the first stages of development of an organism, is now flourishing because of the overall progress being made in natural sciences. Such discoveries of the 20th century as production of plants from a single somatic cell, experimental haploidy, and parasexual hybridization were of general biological significance. The combined efforts of embryologists, geneticists and molecular biologists yielded the discovery of specific genes that control meiosis, egg cell development and early stages of embryogenesis. The tendency to synthesize data of embryology and genetics has become increasingly noticeable. It is connected with the fact that the majority of problems connected with morphogenesis, such as differentiation, specialization, the evaluation of features and the definition of the notionsgene and feature andgenotype and phenotype concern embryology and genetics (embryogenetics) in one way or another. Evolutionary embryology has given rise to a new approach to the study of problems of adaptation in plants. In connection with the problem of preserving biological diversity under conditions of ecological stress, special attention is paid to ecological embryology, revealing the critical periods in early ontogenesis and plasticity and tolerance of reproductive systems at the level of species and population. The study of variability of morphogenesis and phenotype in population (life cycle variations and the diversity of reproductive systems) is the most important point in the population embryology of plants.

In the second volume of this three-volume series, leading researchers in genomics and agriculure present a general discussion on the fundamentals of molecular breeding and applications of molecular markers for germplasm characterization, They investigate basic concepts and the application of molecular mapping and breeding to create improved yield and quality, as well as desired related component traits; limiting biotic and abiotic stresses; and improving physiological traits of economic importance.

in the conservation and use of global plant genetic resources for sustainable agricultural production, Global Plant Genetic Resources for Insect-Resistant Crops explores plant biodiversity, its preservation, and its use to develop crops resistant to pests, thereby reducing world-wide use of chemical pesticides. Topics addressed include:

Genetically transformed or 'hairy' roots are used in a wide variety of research applications, and have received an increasing amount of attention over the past decade. As this area continues to be a fast moving field of scientific endeavour.

With the advent of genetic engineering, "designer" crops might interbreed with natural populations. Could such romances lead to the evolution of "superweeds", as some have suggested? But haven't crops bred with wild plants in the past? Has such gene swapping occurred without consequences? And if consequences have indeed occurred, what lessons can be gleaned for engineered crops? In this book, Norman Ellstrand examines these and other questions. He begins with basic information about the natural hybridization process. He then describes what we now know about hybridization between the world's most important crops - such as wheat, rice, maize and soybeans - and their wild relatives. Such hybridization, Ellstrand explains, is not rare, and has occasionally had a substantial impact. In some cases, the result was problematic weeds. In others, crop genes have diluted natural diversity to the point that wild populations of certain rare species were absorbed into the gene pool of the more common crop, essentially bringing the wild species to the brink of extinction. Ellstrand concludes with a look to the future. Will engineered crops pose a greater threat than traditional crops? If so, can gene flow and hybridization be managed to control the escape of engineered genes? This book should appeal to academics, policy makers, students, and all with an interest in environmental issues.

This volume is the most comprehensive and detailed account of seed proteins so far published and the first dedicated volume for a number of years. It covers the major storage protein groups (prolamins, 2S albumins, 7Sglobulins, and 11S globulins), focusing on those present in crops. It also covers other widely distributed groups of proteins including lectins, inhibitors, antifungal proteins, thionins and oil body protein (oleosins). The breadth of coverage of the proteins is wide, including their structures and properties, evolutionary relationships, classical and molecular genetics and mechanisms of synthesis, trafficking and deposition within the cells. It should therefore become a standard source book for active research scientists as well as for higher level teaching.

Provided here are both the underlying theory and recent results concerning the propagation and use of clones in research and in production forestry. State-of-the-art science and case histories treating production, testing, multiplication and deployment of clones are presented. Agroforestry, urban forestry and Christmas tree farming are covered, along with more traditional multiple-use forestry and high-intensity forestry for biomass, wood and fibre production. Clonal forestry is contrasted with the more recent developments of "family forestry", and the classical tree-improvement approach relying on seed-orchards. The history of clonal forestry is covered with reviews of several centuries' experience with sugi in Japan and poplars in Europe. The impact and use of clones in the context of genetic conservation and bio-diversity are discussed, as are the laws and regulations affecting clonal production and deployment.

Comprising about one hundred plates this atlas documents and describes the processes concerning the sexual reproduction in higher plants. It is dividedinto three parts: - Anther Development - Pistil Development - Progamic Phase and Fertilization. The scanning, transmission electron and light micrographs are all of immaculate quality and - for the viewer's orientation - almost each plate is complemented by a scheme showing a larger area of the plant indicating the site of the section. Together with instructive texts, the often striking images provide a valuable introduction into plant reproductive cell structures for researchers and advanced students of genetics, plantbreeding and cell biology.

Development of transgenic crop plants, their utilization for improved agriculture, health, ecology and environment and their socio-political impacts are currently important fields in education, research and industries and also of interest to policy makers, social activists and regulatory and funding agencies. This work prepared with a class-room approach on this multidisciplinary subject will fill an existing gap and meet the requirements of such a broad section of readers.

The adv antages of those systems are counterbalanced by some important dis- vantages. For one, in heterotrophic and mixotrophic systems high concentrations of organic ingredients are required in the nutrient medium (particularly sugar at 2% or more), associated with a high risk of microbial contamination. How, and to which extent this can be avoided will be dealt with in Chapter 3. Other disadvantages are the difficulties and limitations of extrapolating results based on tissue or cell c- tures, to interpreting phenomena occurring in an intact plant during its development. It has always to be kept in mind that tissue cultures are only model systems, with all positive and negative characteristics inherent of such experimental setups. To be realistic, a direct duplication of in situ conditions in tissue culture systems is still not possible even today in the 21st century, and probably never will be. The organization of the genetic system and of basic cell structures is, however, essentially the same, and therefore tissue cultures of higher plants should be better suited as model s- tems than, e.g., cultures of algae, often employed as model systems in physiological or biochemical investigations. The domain cell and tissue culture is rather broad, and necessarily unspecif ic. In terms of practical aspects, basically five areas can be distinguished (see Figs. 1.1, 1.2 ), which here shall be briefly surveyed before being discussed later at length.