Smart Breeding: Molecular Interventions and Advancements for Crop Improvement

This new volume focuses on novel breeding and biotechnological approaches for crop improvement, covering recent advances in molecular breeding and plant breeding, such as pre-breeding, reverse breeding, allele mining, next-generation sequencing, etc. The authors consider the important necessity and development of climate-resilient crops that can withstand hostility or adversities of climate without substantially compromising yield and discuss ways to mitigate plant stress.

The recent developments in breeding and biotechnological approaches concerning crop improvement that are discussed in the book include molecular markers, their genesis, and their significant applications for crop improvement; QTL mapping, a modern breeding approach for mapping quantitative traits; pulse molecular breeding and genomics; and approaches for precise gene alterations in the genome of organisms by using genome editing.

Other techniques include reverse breeding, a technique that allows breeders to develop parental lines directly from the heterozygous plant within a shorter time frame; pre-breeding approaches for biotic and abiotic stress management in crop plants; allele mining as a way to find existing variations in an organism’s gene pool by scanning the entire gene; marker-assisted selection, where molecular markers have played a significant role in accelerating breeding programs; and next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms in crop improvement, where the authors summarize the technical know-how of each sequencing platform and its merits and demerits.

The book introduces the design and importance of Mutmap and its variant in modern breeding, a novel gene mapping approaches that allows rapid identification of causal nucleotide changes of mutants by whole-genome resequencing.

Examples and case studies of the various approaches are included as well, with several examples of marker-assisted selection of rice and maize crop and other agriculturally important crops.

This informative volume will enhance readers’ knowledge about the recent developments in breeding and biotechnological approaches concerning crop improvement.

Kailash Chandra, PhD, is currently working as Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Sri Karan Narendra Agriculture University-Jobner, Rajasthan, India. His research mainly focuses on pulse breeding, barley breeding, biotic stress, and molecular breeding. He has published more than 25 research papers in various national and international journals. He has also published book chapters with various reputed publishers, including Elsevier, Springer, Nova, IntechOpen, and CRC Press. He is also serving as a life member of various scientific societies, such as the Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Indian Society of Plant Breeders, and the Indian Science Congress Association. Dr. Chandra is the recipient of a Young Scientist Award from the Agricultural Technology Development Society, Uttar Pradesh, India. He has obtained his BSc (Ag.) degree from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka (ICAR-National Talent Scholarship) and MSc (Ag.) from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka (ICAR-Junior Research Fellowship). He earned his PhD degree from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh (ICAR- Senior Research Fellowship), India. He has also qualified ICAR-NET, CSIR-UGC NET and JRF in life science.

Subhash Chand is pursuing his PhD at the Division of Genetics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India, working on the identification of white rust disease resistance gene/s in Indian mustard (Brassica juncea). Before this, he was posted at the ICAR-Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Jhansi, as a scientist (genetics and plant breeding). He has three years of experience in forage and fodder crops, including oat, fodder maize, berseem, lucerne, guinea grass, BN hybrids, and others while working in ICAR-AICRP on forage crops and utilization. He has published more than ten research papers in international and national journals, including Frontiers in Plant Sciences, Journal of Plant Growth Regulation, Grass and Forage Science, Plant Breeding, Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant Breeding, and others. He has also published several book chapters in books published by Elsevier, Springer, IntechOpen, Nova, CRC Press, Apple Academic Press, and others. He has edited five books on fodder crops published by AICRP on forage crops and utilization, including Database of Forage Crop Varieties: 2020 and Technological Advances in Forage Crop Protection. His specialization areas are genetics and plant breeding, quantitative genetics, disease resistance breeding, and molecular breeding. He was also awarded NTS, JRF, and SRF during his academic period by the ICAR. Mr. Chand graduated from UAS-Dharwad (Karnataka) and earned his postgraduate degree at GBPUA&T-Pantnagar (Uttarakhand), India.

Ravi Prakash Saini, PhD, is posted at the ICAR-Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Jhansi, as a scientist (agricultural biotechnology), where he has been involved in various research programs on forage and fodder crops. He has published research papers in reputed peer-reviewed international and national journals, such as Plos One, Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology, and Archives of Phytopathology and Plant Protection. He has published book chapters in books published by CRC Press (Taylor and Francis Group), Nova, and others. His specialization is in tissue culture, molecular cloning, and basic molecular techniques like polymerase chain reaction, northern and southern hybridization, etc. Dr. Saini earned his PhD in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India, and his PhD on biotic stress tolerance, in which he used host-delivered RNA interference (HD-RNAi) technology as a proof of concept and developed transgenic tobacco lines against H. armigera. He graduated from UAS-Dharwad (Karnataka) and earned his postgraduate degree at from ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, India. He was awarded NTS, ICAR-JRF, and CSIR fellowships during his academic period by the ICAR.

Rohit Sharma, PhD, is affiliated with the Department of Plants and Crops, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Belgium. His research mainly focuses on RNAi in crop protection, and he also has a great interest in various molecular techniques in crop development, including molecular markers and genome editing. He has published multiple research papers in reputed international journals and book chapters, such as with Elsevier, Springer, Nova, IntechOpen, CRC Press, and others. He completed his PhD at Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. He received his BSc (Ag.) degree from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka (ICAR-National Talent Scholarship), and MSc in Crop Science from the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany.