This publication opens with the inevitable introduction, moves on to the present traditional approach to breeding for yield stability, and then enumerates a detailed discussion of the physiological approach to breeding for resistance to specific stresses. Not all environmental stresses are covered, omitting those for which little can be said today on practical breeding solutions.
Salinity and water stress limit crop productivity worldwide and generate substantial economic losses each year, yet innovative research on crop and natural resource management can reveal cost-effective ways in which farmers can increase both their productivity and their income. Presenting recent research findings on salt stress, water stress and stress-adapted plants, this book offers insights into new strategies for increasing the efficiency of crops under stressful environments. The strategies are based on conventional breeding and advanced molecular techniques used by plant physiologists, and are discussed using specific case studies to illustrate their potential. The book emphasizes the effects of environmental factors on specific stages of plant development, and discusses the role of plant growth regulators, nutrients, osmoprotectants and antioxidants in counteracting their adverse affects. Synthesising updated information on mechansisms of stress tolerance at cell, tissue and whole-plant level, this book provides a useful reference text for post graduate students and researchers involved in the fields of stress physiology and plant physiology in general, with additional readership amongst researchers in horticulture, agronomy, crop science, conservation, environmental management and ecological restoration.
This volume will be the only existing single-authored book offering a science-based breeder’s manual directed at breeding for water-limited environments. Plant breeding is characterized by the need to integrate information from diverse disciplines towards the development and delivery of a product defines as a new cultivar. Conventional breeding draws information from disciplines such as genetics, plant physiology, plant pathology, entomology, food technology and statistics. Plant breeding for water-limited environments and the development of drought resistant crop cultivars is considered as one of the more difficult areas in plant breeding while at the same time it is becoming a very pressing issue. This volume is unique and timely in that it develops realistic solutions and protocols towards the breeding of drought resistant cultivars by integrating knowledge from environmental science, plant physiology, genetics and molecular biology.
This book focuses on early germination, one of maize germplasm most important strategies for adapting to drought-induced stress. Some genotypes have the ability to adapt by either reducing water losses or by increasing water uptake. Drought tolerance is also an adaptive strategy that enables crop plants to maintain their normal physiological processes and deliver higher economical yield despite drought stress. Several processes are involved in conferring drought tolerance in maize: the accumulation of osmolytes or antioxidants, plant growth regulators, stress proteins and water channel proteins, transcription factors and signal transduction pathways. Drought is one of the most detrimental forms of abiotic stress around the world and seriously limits the productivity of agricultural crops. Maize, one of the leading cereal crops in the world, is sensitive to drought stress. Maize harvests are affected by drought stress at different growth stages in different regions. Numerous events in the life of maize crops can be affected by drought stress: germination potential, seedling growth, seedling stand establishment, overall growth and development, pollen and silk development, anthesis silking interval, pollination, and embryo, endosperm and kernel development. Though every maize genotype has the ability to avoid or withstand drought stress, there is a concrete need to improve the level of adaptability to drought stress to address the global issue of food security. The most common biological strategies for improving drought stress resistance include screening available maize germplasm for drought tolerance, conventional breeding strategies, and marker-assisted and genomic-assisted breeding and development of transgenic maize. As a comprehensive understanding of the effects of drought stress, adaptive strategies and potential breeding tools is the prerequisite for any sound breeding plan, this brief addresses these aspects.
Strategic plan; External program review (EPR); Five-year plan; Currentactivities; Future issues; Acknowledgments; History of wheat crop management and physiology research (CMP) at CIMMYT/Mexico; Background; Evolution of CMP research objectives; Achievements; Research highlights; Support to trial and nursery management; Investigations of the agronomy of new materials; Development of screening techniques for abiotic stresses; Interface with agronomy and pathology; On-farm trials; Nitrogen trials; Organic and inorganic fertilization of wheat; Drought responses; Physiology of yield potential; Heat stress responses; Present focus of CMP strategic research at CIMMYT; Component agronomy; Sustainability of major wheat cropping systems; Pakistan: a foundation for strategic research; Rice-wheat system: the CIMMYT CMP wheat program in South Asia; Soybean-wheat system: Southern cone; Sustaining wheat cropping systems of tropical highlands: a case study of wheat-maize in MexicoSupport to breeding; Physiology and agronomy of wheat grown in environments with supra-optimal temperatures (ME5); Morpho-physiological traits of adaptation in wheat; Agronomic support for management of CIMMYT wheat program trials and nurseries at experiment stations in Mexico, Adaptive crop management research; East Africa cereals program-wheat; Bangladesh wheat program; Crop management research (CMR) training; Types of courses.
A guide to environmental fluctuations that examines photosynthesis under both controlled and stressed conditions Photosynthesis, Productivity and Environmental Stress is a much-needed guide that explores the topics related to photosynthesis (both terrestrial and aquatic) and puts the focus on the basic effect of environmental fluctuations. The authors—noted experts on the topic—discuss photosynthesis under both controlled and stressed conditions and review new techniques for mitigating stressors including methods such as transgeneics, proteomics, genomics, ionomics, metabolomics, micromics, and more. In order to feed our burgeoning world population, it is vital that we must increase food production. Photosynthesis is directly related to plant growth and crop production and any fluctuation in the photosynthetic activity imposes great threat to crop productivity. Due to the environmental fluctuations plants are often exposed to the different environmental stresses that cause decreased photosynthetic rate and problems in the plant growth and development. This important book addresses this topic and: Covers topics related to terrestrial and aquatic photosynthesis Highlights the basic effect of environmental fluctuations Explores common stressors such as drought, salinity, alkalinity, temperature, UV-radiations, oxygen deficiency, and more Contains methods and techniques for improving photosynthetic efficiency for greater crop yield Written for biologists and environmentalists, Photosynthesis, Productivity and Environmental Stress offers an overview of the stressors affecting photosynthesis and includes possible solutions for improved crop production.
