In Vitro Application In Crop Improvement

Covers research achievements in the fields of developmental biology, physiology, and pathology. Chapters discuss sericulture techniques, cocoons, dormancy and hormones, clones, the apple biting silkworm, the sable mutation, separation of male and female eggs, and genetic engineering. An appendix explains the technical terminology. Numerous illustra

The contributions of plant genetics to the production of higher yielding crops of superior quality are well documented. These successes have been realized through the application of plant breeding techniques to a diverse array of genetically controlled traits. Such highly effective breeding procedures will continue to be the primary method employed for the development of new crop cultivars; however, new techniques in cell and molecular biology will provide additional approaches for genetic modification. There has been considerable speculation recently concerning the potential impact of new techniques in cell and molecular biology on plant improvement. These genetic engineering techniques should offer unique opportunities to alter the genetic makeup of crops if applied to existing breeding procedures. Many questions must be answered in order to identify specific applications of these new technologies. This search for applications will require input from plant scientists working on various aspects of crop improvement. This volume is intended to assess the interrelationships between conventional plant breeding and genetic engineering.

This comprehensive book presents the basic concepts and applied techniques of plant cell and tissue culture. Covering the history of in vitro breeding as well as emerging research trends, In Vitro Plant Breeding offers specific techniques for crop improvement and breeding. This helpful book is written in clear language illustrated with examples, schematic descriptions, and tables to make the concepts clear. To view an excerpt online, find the book in our QuickSearch catalog at www.HaworthPress.com.

Since the beginning of agricultural production, there has been a continuous effort to grow more and better quality food to feed ever increasing popula tions. Both improved cultural practices and improved crop plants have al lowed us to divert more human resources to non-agricultural activities while still increasing agricultural production. Malthusian population predictions continue to alarm agricultural researchers, especially plant breeders, to seek new technologies that will continue to allow us to produce more and better food by fewer people on less land. Both improvement of existing cultivars and development of new high-yielding cultivars are common goals for breeders of all crops. In vitro haploid production is among the new technologies that show great promise toward the goal of increasing crop yields by making similar germplasm available for many crops that was used to implement one of the greatest plant breeding success stories of this century, i. e. , the development of hybrid maize by crosses of inbred lines. One of the main applications of anther culture has been to produce diploid homozygous pure lines in a single generation, thus saving many generations of backcrossing to reach homozygosity by traditional means or in crops where self-pollination is not possible. Because doubled haploids are equivalent to inbred lines, their value has been appreciated by plant breeders for decades. The search for natural haploids and methods to induce them has been ongoing since the beginning of the 20th century.

The improvement of crop species has been a basic pursuit since cultivation began thousands of years ago. To feed an ever increasing world population will require a great increase in food production. Wheat, corn, rice, potato and few others are expected to lead as the most important crops in the world. Enormous efforts are made all over the world to document as well as use these resources. Everybody knows that the introgression of genes in wheat provided the foundation for the “Green Revolution”. Later also demonstrated the great impact that genetic resources have on production. Several factors are contributing to high plant performance under different environmental conditions, therefore an effective and complementary use of all available technological tools and resources is needed to meet the challenge.

The present book is a comprehensive, easy-to-use illustrated reference that provides essential facts on the world's top fruit crops. It attempts to describe the significant features of many of them including listing important cultivars and plant material together with principal growing concerns. Biotechnology is generally a technique that is used to modify the products of living organisms with the help of cell and tissue culture, molecular biology, to generate unique organisms with new traits. An overview of advances in biotechnology for fruit crop improvement is presented. Biotechnologies include: in vitro regeneration, embryo rescue, somaclonal variation, haploid, protoplast fusion, non-morphological markers, in vitro conservation of germplasm and recombinant DNA technology or genetic engineering. Novel strategies emanating from these new technologies offer tremendous potential to overcome some of the limitations of sexual hybridization. The application of biotechnology to fruit crops are discussed with an emphasis on limitations of conventional improvement methods and possible biotechnological resolutions. The present study gives us a wonderful panorama about the knowledge of biotechnology being used for the benefit of mankind, not only in India but also the world over, in one way or the other. The feature of this study lies in the balanced coverage of all the advancement of biotechnology. Keeping this in mind the present book has been shaped on various aspects of canopy management of biotechnology and fruit crops. This book covers all important fruits of temperate, tropical and sub-tropical.