Crop Improvement: Sustainability Through Leading-Edge Technology

Description

The book covers the latest development in the biosciences field covering key topics in crop improvement including ‘omic approaches to improving sustainable crop production, advancement in marker technology, strategies in genetic manipulation, crop quality and sustainability and plant microbe interaction detailing on proven technologies to address critical issue for agricultural sustainability which are beneficial for researchers and students. The book also includes aspects of preserving crops after harvest as this is a key factor in promoting sustainable crop quality in terms of addressing waste, choosing the appropriate packaging and moving crops through the food and industrial supply chain. An important strategy to overcome the challenges in providing food for the world population in a sustainable manner is through concerted efforts by crop scientists to embrace new technologies in increasing yield, quality and improving food safety while minimizing adverse environmental impact of the agricultural activities. Most of the proven molecular and genetic technologies in crop science have been tested and verified in model plants such as Arabidopsis and tomato. The technologies, when deployed on various plant species of importance for human nutrition and industrial applications, including cereals, vegetables, fruits, herbs, fibre and oil crops, face many challenges, not only due to their longer life cycle but many other physiological and environmental factors affecting yield and quality of plant products.Furthermore, major impacts on crop production due to catastrophic diseases and global climate change needs urgent and innovative solutions. Therefore a systematic approach, employing various leading-edge technologies that enable the functional elucidation of key pathway genes via ‘omics tools, genome wide association with desired phenotypes and development of cost effective and practicable molecular tools for selection, is vital. The International Conference on Crop Improvement was held to address these and other pressing issues. This volume summarizes the keynote presentations from the meeting and highlights addition discussions that are critical to crop improvement in a challenging time. Front Matter ....Pages i-xviii RNA-seq Analysis in Plant–Fungus Interactions (Ho Chai-Ling, Wai-Yan Yee)....Pages 1-25 Study of Oil Palm Photosynthesis Using Omics Technologies (Bee Keat Neoh, Huey Fang Teh, Yick Ching Wong, Tony Eng Keong Ooi, See Siang Cheah, David R. Appleton)....Pages 27-46 Molecular Marker Technology for Genetic Improvement of Underutilised Crops (Acga Cheng, Hui Hui Chai, Wai Kuan Ho, Aliyu Siise Abdullah Bamba, Aryo Feldman, Presidor Kendabie et al.)....Pages 47-70 Transcription Factors Associated with Abiotic Stress and Fruit Development in Oil Palm (Siti Nor Akmar Abdullah, Azzreena Mohamad Azzeme, Mortaza Ebrahimi, Engku Ahmad Khairi Engku Ariff, Farah Hanan Abu Hanifiah)....Pages 71-99 Sensing Crop Diseases (Thangavel Lakshmipriya, Subash C. B. Gopinath, Uda Hashim)....Pages 101-115 Development of Genomic Resources and Assessing Their Potential for Accelerated Acacia Breeding (Wikneswari Ratnam, Chee Yen Choong, Muhammad Asif Javed)....Pages 117-135 Engineering of Secondary Metabolites in Tissue and Cell Culture of Medicinal Plants: An Alternative to Produce Beneficial Compounds Using Bioreactor Technologies (Mortaza Ebrahimi, Arash Mokhtari)....Pages 137-167 Bioreactor Technology for Sustainable Production of Valuable Plant Metabolites: Challenges and Advances (Morteza Khanahmadi, Kee Yoep Paek)....Pages 169-189 Cisgenesis and Intragenesis as New Strategies for Crop Improvement (Mahdi Moradpour, Siti Nor Akmar Abdullah)....Pages 191-216 Use of dsRNA in Crop Improvement (Lau Su Ee, Purabi Mazumdar, Pooja Singh, Jennifer Ann Harikrishna)....Pages 217-252 Alternative Strategy in Crop Protection: Protease Inhibitors from Turmeric (Chan Seow-Neng, Norliza Abu Bakar, Maziah Mahmood, Ho Chai-Ling, Noor Azmi Shaharuddin)....Pages 253-270 Sustainable Supply Chains: Utilisation of Whole Crops for New Product Development (Rebecca Smith)....Pages 271-286 Food Losses in Rice Milling (Ye Aung)....Pages 287-303 Elicitors and Their Roles in Plant Defence Against Pathogens Particularly Basidiomycetes (Sathyapriya Hamid, Mui-Yun Wong)....Pages 305-334 Induction of Systemic Resistance for Disease Suppression (Kalaivani K. Nadarajah)....Pages 335-357 Tools and Targeted Genes for Plant Disease Detection (Umaiyal Munusamy, Siti Nor Akmar Abdullah)....Pages 359-379 Back Matter ....Pages 381-388