Nutritional Quality Improvement In Plants

This book presents a detailed overview and critical evaluation of recent advances and remaining challenges in improving nutritional quality and/or avoiding the accumulation of undesirable substances in plants using a variety of strategies based on modern biological tools and techniques. Each review chapter provides an authoritative and insightful account of the various aspects of nutritional enhancement of plants. In the course of the last two decades, several food crops rich in macro- and micronutrients have been developed to improve health and protect a large section of the populace in developing countries from chronic diseases. Providing extensive information on these developments, this book offers a valuable resource for all researchers, students and industrialists working in agriculture, the plant sciences, agronomy, horticulture, biotechnology, food and nutrition, and the soil and environmental sciences.

Learn to identify, modify, and manipulate the genes controlling key quality traits in field crops! This informative book provides state-of-the-art information on improving nutritional quality as well as yield volume in field crops such as wheat, maize, rice, barley, oats, lentils, pigeon peas, soybeans, cool season legumes, and crops whose seeds are used to make oils. With contributions from leading authorities in the field, this book will bring you up to date on the uses of agronomic management, conventional plant breeding, and modern biotechnologies in improving the quality of important food, feed, and fiber products. Quality Improvement in Field Crops examines: factors that impact the end-use quality of wheat and ways to improve wheat’s quality for milling and baking agronomic practices that impact the quality of maize ways to improve the nutritional value of rice and legumes techniques for using molecular markers to improve the quality of lentil crops breeding methods that can improve the quality of the oils derived from oilseed crops protein quality/sulfur metabolism in soybeans and much more! This book is dedicated to the World Food Laureate (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for food scientists), Dr. G. S. Khush--the father of the Green Revolution in rice farming--in recognition of his tremendous contributions to global food and nutritional security for the world?s population.

An in-depth treatment of cutting-edge work being done internationally to develop new techniques in crop nutritional quality improvement Phytonutritional Improvement of Crops explores recent advances in biotechnological methods for the nutritional enrichment of food crops. Featuring contributions from an international group of experts in the field, it provides cutting-edge information on techniques of immense importance to academic, professional and commercial operations. World population is now estimated to be 7.5 billion people, with an annual growth rate of nearly 1.5%. Clearly, the need to enhance not only the quantity of food produced but its quality has never been greater, especially among less developed nations. Genetic manipulation offers the best prospect for achieving that goal. As many fruit crops provide proven health benefits, research efforts need to be focused on improving the nutritional qualities of fruits and vegetables through increased synthesis of lycopene and beta carotene, anthocyanins and some phenolics known to be strong antioxidants. Despite tremendous growth in the area occurring over the past several decades, the work has only just begun. This book represents an effort to address the urgent need to promote those efforts and to mobilise the tools of biotechnical and genetic engineering of the major food crops. Topics covered include: New applications of RNA-interference and virus induced gene silencing (VIGS) for nutritional genomics in crop plants Biotechnological techniques for enhancing carotenoid in crops and their implications for both human health and sustainable development Progress being made in the enrichment and metabolic profiling of diverse carotenoids in a range of fruit crops, including tomatoes, sweet potatoes and tropical fruits Biotechnologies for boosting the phytonutritional values of key crops, including grapes and sweet potatoes Recent progress in the development of transgenic rice engineered to massively accumulate flavonoids in-seed Phytonutritional Improvement of Crops is an important text/reference that belongs in all universities and research establishments where agriculture, horticulture, biological sciences, and food science and technology are studied, taught and applied.

Development of superior crops that have consistent performance in quality and in quantity has not received the same emphasis in the field of genetics and breeding as merited. Specialty trait requires special focus to propagate. Yet basic germplasm and breeding methodologies optimized to improve crops are often applied in the development of improved specialty types. However, because of the standards required for specialty traits, methods of development and improvement are usually more complex than those for common commodity crops. The same standards of performance are desired, but the genetics of the specialty traits often impose breeding criteria distinct from those of non-specialty possessing crops. Specifically, quality improvement programs have unique characteristics that require careful handling and monitoring during their development for specific needs. Adding value either via alternative products from the large volumes of grain produced or development of specialty types is of interest to producers and processors. This work assimilates the most topical results about quality improvement with contemporary plant breeding approaches.The objective of this book is to provide a summary of the germplasm, methods of development, and specific problems involved for quality breeding. In total, fourteen chapters, written by leading scientists involved in crop improvement research, provide comprehensive coverage of the major factors impacting specialty crop improvement.

The book discusses up-to-date and detailed information about the nutritional quality of forage in the biodiversity-rich Himalayan region and their potential in livestock feeding. • Provides a comprehensive discussion on the prospects of Himalayan forages. • Collates findings and data based on more than two decades of research on nutritional quality of different temperate grasses, fodder trees, legumes and non-conventional forage resources. • Includes information on different forage resources, nutritional quality of forages, niche based nutritive forage species, varietal improvement of different species for nutritionally rich forages, non-conventional forages and modern biotechnological intervention for quality improvement of forages. • Offers a valuable resource of information on forages for researchers and policymakers • Include information oriented toward livestock feeding, influencing their health, production and productivity affecting economic status of farmers. • Presents exhaustive information on forage species along with pictorial presentations. The target audience will be researchers and scientists in public and private institutions (e.g. government, academia, dairy industry), policy planners, animal nutritionists and students. The monograph is relevant for the readers interested in understanding forage quality for livestock feeding and suggest models for quality improvement of forages worldwide, in similar topographies. It is also relevant to the researchers studying forage improvement and biofortification for nutritional enhancement for improving livestock health and productivity

This book focuses on the conventional breeding approach, and on the latest high-throughput genomics tools and genetic engineering / biotechnological interventions used to improve rice quality. It is the first book to exclusively focus on rice as a major food crop and the application of genomics and genetic engineering approaches to achieve enhanced rice quality in terms of tolerance to various abiotic stresses, resistance to biotic stresses, herbicide resistance, nutritional value, photosynthetic performance, nitrogen use efficiency, and grain yield. The range of topics is quite broad and exhaustive, making the book an essential reference guide for researchers and scientists around the globe who are working in the field of rice genomics and biotechnology. In addition, it provides a road map for rice quality improvement that plant breeders and agriculturists can actively consult to achieve better crop production.

Nutrient Use Efficiency in Plants: Concepts and Approaches is the ninth volume in the Plant Ecophysiology series. It presents a broad overview of topics related to improvement of nutrient use efficiency of crops. Nutrient use efficiency (NUE) is a measure of how well plants use the available mineral nutrients. It can be defined as yield (biomass) per unit input (fertilizer, nutrient content). NUE is a complex trait: it depends on the ability to take up the nutrients from the soil, but also on transport, storage, mobilization, usage within the plant, and even on the environment. NUE is of particular interest as a major target for crop improvement. Improvement of NUE is an essential pre-requisite for expansion of crop production into marginal lands with low nutrient availability but also a way to reduce use of inorganic fertilizer.