This edited book covers all aspects of omics approaches used for the varietal improvement of millets in changing climatic conditions. Millets are the collection of small-grained cereal grasses, that are grown for human carbohydrate needs. They are among the oldest crops, mainly divided into two groups – Major and small millets based on seed size. Small millets are earlier considered orphan crops, but recently due to their nutritional values, they are getting importance in cultivation. This book explores the genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, bioinformatics, and other omics tools that are being widely used to get a clear understanding of mechanistic approaches taken by plant genes to tolerate stress. Various reports are published based on field breeding on these crops, and recently the genome of some of the small millets is released, and many omics studies are published related to its application in varietal improvements. This book reviewed all those recent studies and is of interest to research students, plant breeding scientists, teachers that are working in agriculture and plant biotech universities. Along with this, the book serves as reference material for undergraduate and graduate students of agriculture, and biotechnology. National and international agricultural scientists, policymakers will also find this to be a useful read.
Dr. Ramesh Namdeo Pudake is Assistant Professor at Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida and is a PhD in Crop Genetics and Breeding from China Agricultural University, Beijing, PRC. After his PhD he is engaged in research in a range of organisms but with a focus on crop plant genomics. He has also worked in Iowa State University Ames, IA, USA on host pathogen interaction and gene mapping. Currently he is focusing on the research on different applications of genomics in host microbe interaction, and abiotic stress tolerance. Dr. Pudake has published more than 35 research publications, 3 books, 18 book chapters, and has one scholarship award from Chinese Government, and one fellowship from Science and Engineering Research Board, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India to his credit. He is also an expert reviewer for several journals of repute.
Dr Amolkumar U. Solanke is Senior Scientist, at ICAR - National Institute of Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi. Dr. Solanke has done his PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from Delhi University South Campus, New Delhi and later joined Indian Council of Agricultural Research, India as Scientist. His research interest is functional genomics for biotic and abiotic stress management in crop plants especially, rice and finger millet. He was also a part of tomato and cluster bean genome sequencing projects. He has published more than 70 papers in this field in peer reviewed journals, besides 15 book chapters. He is executing a few funded research projects on finger millet and guiding MSc, PhD and post-doctoral students. He is an expert reviewer in the area of genomics and plant molecular biology for several journals of repute.
Dr Amitha Mithra Sevanthi is Senior Scientist at ICAR-National Institute of Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi. She has done her doctorate in Genetics and Plant Breeding from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. She is working in the area of genomicsfor developing molecular markers, whole genome sequencing of major crop plants and identification/mapping of genes for abiotic stress tolerance and their characterization and use of EMS induced mutants for identification of novel genes and alleles with focus in rice as well as pigeonpea and cluster bean. She has published more than 50 research papers in peer reviewed journals, contributed to seven book chapters and is a supervisor for M.Sc. and Ph.D. students. She is an expert reviewer in the area of molecular mapping, DNA marker development and applications and genomics in several international journals of repute.
Dr P. Rajendrakumar is Principal Scientist at ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research, Hyderabad. He has a Doctorate degree in Plant Breeding and Genetics from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. He has developed SSR markers in coffee, rice, and safflower. His research focus is on development of DNA markers in millets, whole genome sequencing, marker-trait associations for grain quality and molecular breeding for genotypes suitable for lignocellulosic biofuel production in sorghum. He has published more than 30 research papers in peer-reviewed journals, a book and 10 book chapters. He is also an expert reviewer for journals like Frontiers in Genetics, PLoS One and Crop Science.
