Advances in Plant Transgenics: Methods and Applications

The green revolution led to the development of improved varieties of crops, especially cereals, and since then, classical or molecular breeding has resulted in the creation of economically valuable species. Thanks to recent developments in genetic engineering, it has become possible to introduce genes from different sources, such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, mice and humans, to plants. This technology has made the scientific community aware of the critical role of transgenics, not only as a means of producing stress tolerant crops but also as a platform for the production of therapeutics through molecular farming.

This book discusses the commercial applications of plant transgenic technologies, including the use of transgenic cell culture approachesto improve the production of metabolites and high-value therapeutics as well as transgenic plants in pest management. It also explores generation of novel vectors, protein production using chloroplast engineering and the latest developments in this area, such as genome editing in plants. Featuring general discussions and research papers by leading international experts, it is a valuable resource for scientists, teachers, students and industrialists working in the field.

Dr. Rajeev Kumar is working as Scientist in String Bio Private Limited, India after completing 5 years of post-doctoral research in CSIR- Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow and Research Centre Bangalore. He received fellowships like Senior Research Associateship from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Govt. of India and Research Associateship from Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India. During his PhD tenure, he was awarded one year fellowship from Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal to work with Prof. Birgit Arnholdt-Schmitt, University of Evora, Portugal.  He has published 15 research papers in international peer-reviewed journals and authored 14 book chapters.  Dr. Hema Jagadeesan is currently an Associate Professor in Biotechnology at PSG College of Technology, India and actively pursuing research in the area of environmental biotechnology, especially plant-microbe interactions in remediation. She holds a PhD in Plant Sciences from Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, India and MSc. in Environmental Sciences from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. She is the recipient of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Junior and Senior research Fellowships for her doctoral research. She has eight international journal articles and more than eleven conference publications. She has worked as Programme Officer (Scientist C) in “The Centre for Environment Education”, (Supported by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, India). Dr. Baskar Venkidasamy is working as a consultant in Texcity Biosciences Pvt Ltd., India. He   completed his post-doctoral research in Bharathiar University, India in the DST-SERB N-PDF scheme. He received fellowship from Konkuk University, S. Korea for doing PhD in Molecular biotechnology. His area of expertise is genetic engineering of plants for improved traits such as stress tolerance, enhanced health and nutritive values. He obtained his master’s degree in Biotechnology from Bharathidasan University and bachelor’s degree in Microbiology from Madurai Kamaraj University. He has published 20 peer reviewed publications in internationally reputed journals and 3 book chapters in international publishers.