Genetic Enhancement In Major Food Legumes

The protein molecule is the basic building block of every living entity. Its deficiency leads to restricted growth and development of individuals. Globally, such malnutrition is on the rise due to various reasons such as rapid population growth, stagnation of productivity, and ever-rising costs. Millions of people, especially in developing and under-developed countries, suffer from protein malnutrition and the only possible solution is to encourage farmers to grow high-protein food legume crops in their fields for domestic consumption. This, however, could be possible if farmers are provided with new cultivars with high yield, and resistance to major insects, diseases, and key abiotic stresses. The major food legume crops are chickpea, cowpea, common bean, groundnut, lentil, pigeonpea, and soybean. Predominantly, the legume crops are grown under a subsistence level and, therefore, in comparison to cereals and horticultural crops their productivity is low and highly variable. The crop breeders around the globe are engaged in breeding suitable cultivars for harsh and changing environments but success has been limited and not up to needs. With the recent development of new technologies in plant sciences, efforts are being made to help under-privileged farmers through breeding new cultivars which will produce more protein per unit of land area. In this book, the contributors analyze the constraints, review new technologies, and propose a future course of crop breeding programs in seven cold and warm season legume crops.

Food legumes are important constituents of the human diet and animal feed where they are crucial to a balanced diet, supplying high quality proteins. These crops also play an important role in low-input agricultural production systems by fixing atmospheric nitrogen. Despite systematic and continuous breeding efforts through conventional methods, substantial genetic gains have not been achieved. With the rise in demand for food legumes/pulses and increased market value of these crops, research has focused on increasing production and improving the quality of pulses for both edible and industria.

An introductory chapter provides an up-to-date review of biotechnology and genetic engineering for crop legumes: strategy, techniques and goals. Following chapters examine each of major category: economic and nutritional importance, applicable genetic engineering techniques, and feasible objectives for improvement. Special attention is given to soybeans, the most important of the legumes. The text is well illustrated and carefully organized for easy reference.

A comprehensive and groundbreaking collection of ideas for plant improvement Most of the world’s supply of legumes is cultivated under adverse conditions that make this commercially important crop susceptible to the vagaries of nature and damaging stresses. Genetic manipulation has become a proven way for cultivators to battle these problems; but there has been a lack of reliable information on the practical aspects of this promising method. Handbook of New Technologies for Genetic Improvement of Legumes fills this void by providing a vast array of groundbreaking essays from some of the discipline’s most renowned experts. This unique collection is your single source for not only the most up-to-date accounts of genetic manipulation employed today, but also ideas for realistic and practical uses. Comprehensive in its approach, Handbook of New Technologies for Genetic Improvement of Legumes presents the latest research on all aspects of genetically modified legume production. With contributions from over 90 international experts, this eye-opening resource offers an in-depth exploration of key topics such as, genetic transformation technology, suppression-subtractive hybridization, c-DNA micro arrays, molecular mapping, tagging regulatory elements, and real-time PCR. Additionally, this text features a wealth of detailed references and informative tables to clearly explain pertinent data. Chapters in Handbook of New Technologies for Genetic Improvement of Legumes detail both family- and species-specific topics such as: • agrobacterium-mediated transformation in trifolium and medicago • biotechnological approaches to soybean improvement • transgenic approaches for enhancement of vitamin E • particle bombardment and SAAT approaches • agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation and in vitro regeneration • plant regeneration via organogenesis, somatic embryogenesis, and protoplast culture • somaclonal variation and its exploitation • cotyledonary node and embryo axes as explants • in planta transformation of pisum sativum l. • de novo regeneration protocol • reverse genetic approaches in medicago truncatula • tagging regulatory elements in plants • gene expression analysis with DNA array technology • advent of diverse DNA markers to decipher genome sequence polymorphism • defensins in legumes • legume-nematode interaction with reference to model legumes • and much, much more! Handbook of New Technologies for Genetic Improvement of Legumes is an invaluable resource for researchers and educators in the area of plant genetic manipulation and plant biotechnology as well as scientists, educators, and graduate students focusing on the genetic manipulation of legumes.

Grain legumes, including common-bean, chickpea, pigeonpea, pea, cowpea, lentil and others, form important constituents of global diets, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian. Despite this significant role, global production has increased only marginally in the past 50 years. The slow production growth, along with a rising human population and improved buying capacity has substantially reduced the per capita availability of food legumes. Changes in environmental climate have also had significant impact on production, creating a need to identify stable donors among genetic resources for environmentally robust genes and designing crops resilient to climate change. Genetic and Genomic Resources of Grain Legume Improvement is the first book to bring together the latest resources in plant genetics and genomics to facilitate the identification of specific germplasm, trait mapping and allele mining to more effectively develop biotic and abiotic-stress-resistant grains. This book will be an invaluable resource for researchers, crop biologists and students working with crop development. Explores origin, distribution and diversity of grain legumes Presents information on germplasm collection, evaluation and maintenance Offers insight into pre-breeding/germplasm enhancement efforts Integrates genomic and genetic resources in crop improvement Internationally contributed work

Legumes have played an important part as human food and animal feed in cropping systems since the dawn of agriculture. The legume family is arguably one of the most abundantly domesticated crop plant families. Their ability to symbiotically fix nitrogen and improve soil fertility has been rewarded since antiquity and makes them a key protein source. Pea was the original model organism used in Mendel´s discovery of the laws of inheritance, making it the foundation of modern plant genetics. This book based on Special Issue provides up-to-date information on legume biology, genetic advances, and the legacy of Mendel.

The first book in this new series discusses grain legumes, which rank only second to cereals in supplying calories and protein to the world's population. With each chapter written by an internationally renowned scientist, the book reviews the role of alien germplasm for the domestication of each major legume crop. Discussion for each crop covers or

This specially curated collection features six reviews of current and key research on genetic modification of crops. The first chapter reviews key challenges facing banana production, primarily the risk of species decimation by diseases such as Fusarium wilt, and considers how genetic modification may be a solution to this. The second chapter discusses the development and establishment of 'Golden Rice' - a biofortified variety designed as a health intervention to help alleviate the problem of vitamin A deficiency. The third chapter details recent advances in the genetic modification of important agronomic traits of soybean crops, such as herbicide tolerance and insect resistance. The fourth chapter addresses progress in and prospects for transgenic interventions in the improvement of grain legumes, concentrating on chickpea, pigeonpea, cowpea and more. The fifth chapter reviews recent research efforts in the production of genetically modified (GM) oil palm plants and looks towards establishing stable lines of commercially viable GM varieties. The final chapter describes recent progress relating to transgenic modification of cassava and how future research can strengthen food security and commercialization of the crop. What is an Instant Insight? An Instant Insight gives you immediate access to key research on a topic, allowing you to get right to the heart of a subject in an instant and empowering you to contribute to sustainable agriculture.