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Corn : a global history
\"Originating in Mesoamerica 9,000 years ago, maize - or, as we know it, corn - now grows in 160 countries. In the New World, indigenous peoples referred to corn as \"Our Mother,\" \"Our Life,\" and \"She Who Sustains Us.\" Today, the United States is the world's leading producer of corn, and you can find more than 3,500 items in grocery stores that contain corn in one way or another - from puddings to soups, margarine to mayonnaise. In Corn: A Global History, Michael Owen Jones explores the origins of this humble but irreplaceable crop.\"--Back cover.
Book
Applications of Multi-Omics Technologies for Crop Improvement
Multiple “omics” approaches have emerged as successful technologies for plant systems over the last few decades. Advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) have paved a way for a new generation of different omics, such as genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics. However, metabolomics, ionomics, and phenomics have also been well-documented in crop science. Multi-omics approaches with high throughput techniques have played an important role in elucidating growth, senescence, yield, and the responses to biotic and abiotic stress in numerous crops. These omics approaches have been implemented in some important crops including wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.), soybean ( Glycine max ), tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ), barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.), maize ( Zea mays L.), millet ( Setaria italica L.), cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.), Medicago truncatula , and rice ( Oryza sativa L.). The integration of functional genomics with other omics highlights the relationships between crop genomes and phenotypes under specific physiological and environmental conditions. The purpose of this review is to dissect the role and integration of multi-omics technologies for crop breeding science. We highlight the applications of various omics approaches, such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, phenomics, and ionomics, and the implementation of robust methods to improve crop genetics and breeding science. Potential challenges that confront the integration of multi-omics with regard to the functional analysis of genes and their networks as well as the development of potential traits for crop improvement are discussed. The panomics platform allows for the integration of complex omics to construct models that can be used to predict complex traits. Systems biology integration with multi-omics datasets can enhance our understanding of molecular regulator networks for crop improvement. In this context, we suggest the integration of entire omics by employing the “phenotype to genotype” and “genotype to phenotype” concept. Hence, top-down (phenotype to genotype) and bottom-up (genotype to phenotype) model through integration of multi-omics with systems biology may be beneficial for crop breeding improvement under conditions of environmental stresses.
Journal Article
Breeding progress and preparedness for mass‐scale deployment of perennial lignocellulosic biomass crops switchgrass, miscanthus, willow and poplar
Genetic improvement through breeding is one of the key approaches to increasing biomass supply. This paper documents the breeding progress to date for four perennial biomass crops (PBCs) that have high output–input energy ratios: namely Panicum virgatum (switchgrass), species of the genera Miscanthus (miscanthus), Salix (willow) and Populus (poplar). For each crop, we report on the size of germplasm collections, the efforts to date to phenotype and genotype, the diversity available for breeding and on the scale of breeding work as indicated by number of attempted crosses. We also report on the development of faster and more precise breeding using molecular breeding techniques. Poplar is the model tree for genetic studies and is furthest ahead in terms of biological knowledge and genetic resources. Linkage maps, transgenesis and genome editing methods are now being used in commercially focused poplar breeding. These are in development in switchgrass, miscanthus and willow generating large genetic and phenotypic data sets requiring concomitant efforts in informatics to create summaries that can be accessed and used by practical breeders. Cultivars of switchgrass and miscanthus can be seed‐based synthetic populations, semihybrids or clones. Willow and poplar cultivars are commercially deployed as clones. At local and regional level, the most advanced cultivars in each crop are at technology readiness levels which could be scaled to planting rates of thousands of hectares per year in about 5 years with existing commercial developers. Investment in further development of better cultivars is subject to current market failure and the long breeding cycles. We conclude that sustained public investment in breeding plays a key role in delivering future mass‐scale deployment of PBCs. Plant breeding links the research effort with commercial mass upscaling. The authors’ assessment of development status of the four species is shown (poplar having two: one for short rotation coppice (SRC) poplar and one for the more traditional short rotation forestry (SRF)). Mass scale deployment needs developments outside the breeding arenas to drive breeding activities more rapidly and extensively.
Journal Article
Transgenic expression of flavanone 3‐hydroxylase redirects flavonoid biosynthesis and alleviates anthracnose susceptibility in sorghum
Flavonoids are ubiquitous in terrestrial plants with important physiological functions. The in planta flavonoid profile depends on the activities of different biosynthesis enzymes (Figure 1a). Flavanone 3-hydroxylase (F3H) is a key enzyme channeling carbon flow towards the production of 3-hydroxylated flavonoids, including flavonols and anthocyanidins. In Poaceae, F3H-encoding genes are generally inactive in vegetative tissues which accumulate flavone derivatives as the predominant flavonoid metabolites. Meanwhile, sorghum produces 3-deoxyanthocyanidins and flavones as phytoalexins for defense against pathogens such as Colletotrichum sublineola, the causal agent of anthracnose.
Journal Article
The devil's element : phosphorus and a world out of balance
The story of phosphorus spans the globe and vast tracts of human history. The race to mine phosphorus took people from the battlefields of Waterloo, which were looted for the bones of fallen soldiers, to the fabled guano islands off Peru, the Bone Valley of Florida, and the sand dunes of the Western Sahara. Over the past century, phosphorus has made farming vastly more productive, feeding the enormous increase in the human population. Yet, as the author harrowingly reports, our overreliance on this vital crop nutrient is causing toxic algae blooms and \"dead zones\" in waterways from the coasts of Florida to the Mississippi River basin to the Great Lakes and beyond. This book also explores the alarming reality that diminishing access to phosphorus poses a threat to the food system worldwide--which risks rising conflict and even war. -- Adapted from publisher's description.
Book
Dancing with the river : people and life on the Chars of South Asia
An intimate glimpse into the microcosmic world of \"hybrid landscapes\" and their inhabitants. With this book, Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt and Gopa Samanta offer an intimate glimpse into the microcosmic world of \"hybrid environments.\" Focusing on chars -- the part-land, part-water, low-lying sandy masses that exist within the riverbeds in the floodplains of lower Bengal -- the authors show how, both as real-life examples and as metaphors, chars straddle the conventional categories of land and water, and how people who live on them fluctuate between legitimacy and illegitimacy. The result, a study of human habitation in the nebulous space between land and water, charts a new way of thinking about land, people, and people's ways of life. Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt is a senior fellow in resource management in the Asia-Pacific Program at the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. She lives in Canberra. Gopa Samanta is an associate professor in geography at the University of Burdwan. She lives in Golapbag, Burdwan, India.
eBook
Golden rice : the imperiled birth of a GMO superfood
\"Ordinary white rice is nutrient poor, it consists of carbohydrates and little else. About one million people who subsist on rice become blind or die each year from vitamin A deficiency. Golden rice, which was developed in the hopes of combating that problem by a team of European scientists in the late '90s, was genetically modified to provide an essential nutrient that white rice lacks: beta carotene, which is converted into vitamin A in the body. But twenty years later, this potentially sight- and lifesaving miracle food still has not reached the populations most in need, and tens of millions of people in India, China, Bangladesh, and throughout South and Southeast Asia have gone blind or have died waiting. Supporters claim that the twenty-year delay in Golden Rice's introduction is an unconscionable crime against humanity. Critics have countered that the rice is a \"hoax\", that it is \"food's gold\" and \"propaganda for the genetic engineering industry\". Here, science writer Ed Regis argues that Golden Rice is the world's most controversial, maligned, and misunderstood GMO. Regis tells the story of how the development, growth, and distribution of Golden Rice was delayed and repeatedly derailed by a complex but outdated set of operational guidelines and regulations imposed by governments, and sabotaged by anti-GMO activists in the very nations where the rice is most needed. Regis separates hyperbole from facts, overturning the myths, distortions, and urban legends about this uniquely promising superfood. Anyone interested in GMOs, social justice, or world hunger will find \"Golden rice\" a compelling, sad, and maddening true-life science tale.\" -- Provided by publisher
Book
Plant Genetic Resources Conservation and Utilization: The Accomplishments and Future of a Societal Insurance Policy
Concerns about the genetic erosion of crop genetic resources (CGR) were first articulated by scientists in the mid-20th century and have since become an important part of national policies and international treaties. The C-8 (Plant Genetic Resources) section of the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) was created in 1990 in response to these concerns. Over the last 50 yr, both ex situ and in situ conservation have been set up to maintain threatened CGR. During this period, a set of tools (core collections, molecular markers, and geographic information systems) has been adopted to facilitate conservation and utilization by breeders. Current and future trends include characterization of the genotypic basis of phenotypic variation and the evolutionary, ecological, and human factors that have shaped CGR. The intellectual property regime to which CGR are subjected since 1980 has limited the exchange of germplasm. It remains to be seen if these regimes will evolve so as to achieve basic goals of conservation of genetic diversity and traditional knowledge associated with diversity, while at the same time reward breeders and farmers. Funding of biodiversity conservation remains a critical point. Finally, broadening the conservation circle to establish closer collaborations with grassroots conservation movements and community seed banks is necessary to better conserve the broad range of CGR and as an essential starting point for participatory breeding efforts.
Journal Article