Various cellular processes underlying plant development and response to environmental cues rely on a dynamic interplay between membranes and the cytoskeleton, e.g. vesicle and organelle trafficking, endocytosis, exocytosis, and signal transduction. In recent years, significant progress in the understanding of such interplay has been achieved and several critical links between membranes and the …
Breeding cereals in Northwest Europe for durable resistance has made an important contribution to control of almost all economically significant diseases and pests of wheat, barley and oats. Durable resistance to fungal diseases is largely polygenic and quantitative, with the important exception of mlo resistance to powdery mildew of spring barley. Resistance to powdery mildew of winter wheat, …
The gaseous molecule ethylene (C2H4), which is small in size and simple in structure, is a plant hormone most often associated with fruit ripening yet has a diversity of effects throughout the plant life cycle. While its agricultural effects were known even in ancient Egypt, the complexity of its mode of action and the broad spectrum of its effects and potential uses in plant physiology remain …
Plants, unlike animals, are sessile. This demands that adverse changes in their environment are quickly recognized, distinguished and responded to with suitable reactions. Drought, heat, cold and salinity are among the major abiotic stresses that adversely affect plant growth and productivity. In general, abiotic stress often causes a series of morphological, physiological, biochemical and mole…
This open access book is a compilation of advances in sweetpotato genomics, which have been used to improve our understanding of the evolution of sweetpotato, increase our knowledge of crop growth and development, and provided critical information required for genomic-assisted breeding in sweetpotato. Sweetpotato is a critical food staple for millions of people in the developing world that has…
This open-access edited book provides a synthesis of knowledge on Water Productivity (WP) and its role in addressing global challenges related to water and food insecurity, as well as climate change. It explores how increasing WP can contribute to achieving several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the global South, with a focus on SDG 2, 6, and 12. The volume connects WP with emerging…
Water plants of all sizes, from the 60-meter long Pacific Ocean giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) to the micro ur-plant blue-green algae, deserve attention from critical plant studies. This is the first book in environmental humanities to approach algae, swimming across the sciences, humanities, and arts, to embody the mixed nature and collaborative identity of algae. Ranging from Medieval Isl…
This open access book shares impact stories – testimonies from various value chain actors who have been part of the Tropical Legumes (TL) projects, over the past twelve years. The Tropical Legumes projects led by ICRISAT in three parts (TLI, TLII and TLIII), constitute a major international initiative supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and jointly implemented by the Inter…
This open access book is an update of genome editing techniques applied to a range of plants. We discuss the latest techniques and applications to cereals, roots and tubers, oilseed crops, fruit and forest trees, vegetables, legumes and algae including resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, improved quality, drug production, yield and adaptation to climate change. The regulations in differ…
This open access book is a compilation of protocols developed through a Coordinated Research Project of the Joint FAO/IAEA Center of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, specifically focused on mutation breeding for resistance to Striga. The book consists of three sections; (i) a general introduction on Striga biology and impact and mutagenesis in cereal crops; (ii) protocol chapters foc…