Translational Genomics for Crop Breeding

The Genomics Applications in Crop Improvement two volume set brings together a diverse field of international experts in plant breeding genomics to share their experiences in the field, from success stories to lessons learnt.

In recent years advances in genetics and genomics have greatly enhanced our understanding of the structural and functional aspects of plant genomes. Several novel genetic and genomics approaches such as association genetics, advanced back-cross QTL analysis, allele mining, comparative and functional genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, etc. offer unprecedented opportunities to examine crop genetic variation and utilize this variability for breeding purposes. Enhancing the prediction of the phenotype from a genotype using genomics tools is referred to as 'genomics-assisted breeding'. To date, genomics-assisted breeding has shown its potential for crop improvement in several crops, however these successes have been largely restricted to temperate cereal and legume crops, and others such as Eucalyptus, sugarcane, tomato and other vegetables crops. Moreover, while success stories are available for improving resistance to biotic stresses, only a few examples are available on development of superior lines for abiotic stresses.  These volumes will allow researchers the tools to begin to apply these technologies more broadly and will hopefully lead to lasting improvements in a wide variety of economically important crops.

Volume One, Biotic Stress, focuses on genomic-assisted advances for improving economically important crops against biotic stressors, such as viruses, fungi, nematodes, and bacteria. Looking at key advances in crops such as rice, barley, wheat, and potato amongst others.

Volume Two, Abiotic Stress, Quality and Yield Improvement, focuses on advances improving crop resistance to abiotic stresses such as extreme heat, drought, flooding as well as advances made in quality and yield improvement. Chapters examine advances in such key crops as rice, maize, and sugarcane, among others.

• Two volumes covering important topics in crop genomics and applying that
  information to breeding improved varieties of economically important crops
• Volumes cover improving resistance to abiotic and biotic stressors as well as breeding
  efforts to improve yield and quality
• Includes chapters on current challenges for plant breeders such as fusarium disease in wheat and cyst nematodes in soybean crops
• Organized by crop, with chapters covering a variety of topics for each including disease resistance, drought tolerance, salinity tolerance and overall improvement of yield
• Written by an international team of experts

This book is intended for crop science researchers, plant biologists, geneticists, physiologists, cellular and molecular biologists, and advanced students in related fields will also find this set useful.

Rajeev Varshney is a Principal Scientist for the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India, as well as a Theme Leader for the CGIAR Generation >Challenge Program in Mexico. Dr. Varshney has published hundreds of research articles and co-edited five previous works on genomics and crop improvement.?Dr. Varshney is also an adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia.

Roberto Tuberosa is a professor at the University of Bologna, Italy, where he teaches courses on plant genetic resources and biotechnology, biotechnology applied to plant breeding, and agricultural genetics. Dr. Tuberosa is also active in the cereal crop research community and has published extensively on topics related to barley, maize and wheat, and he serves on the editorial boards for Plant Breeding, Plant Biotechnology Journal and Plant Genetic Resources characterization andutilization.