Sustainable food production is vital to ensure food and nutritional security to growing human population. Recently, there has been a shift in agricultural production system, crop production is not only considering yield as primary interest to produce higher number of calories for reducing hunger, but also more nutrient-rich food to reduce malnutrition or “hidden hunger”. Micronutrient malnutrition is a continuing and serious public health problem in many countries, various Interventions to alleviate this problem have been implemented. Biofortification, the process of breeding nutrients into food crops, provides a comparatively cost effective, sustainable, and long-term means of delivering more micronutrients. Legumes have higher protein content than most plant foods approximately twice than cereals and are rich in the key micronutrients folate, niacin, thiamine, calcium, iron and zinc. This book summarizes the biofortification of legumes. Detailed information through contributed chapters shed light on legumes research relevant to human health, with key topics that include genomic and genetic resources for food security, conventional and modern breeding approaches for improving nutrition, agronomic traits and biotechnological interventions.

Rhizosphere Engineering is a guide to applying environmentally sound agronomic practices to improve crop yield while also protecting soil resources. Focusing on the potential and positive impacts of appropriate practices, the book includes the use of beneficial microbes, nanotechnology and metagenomics. Developing and applying techniques that not only enhance yield, but also restore the quality of soil and water using beneficial microbes such as Bacillus, Pseudomonas, vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhiza (VAM) fungi and others are covered, along with new information on utilizing nanotechnology, quorum sensing and other technologies to further advance the science. Designed to fill the gap between research and application, this book is written for advanced students, researchers and those seeking real-world insights for improving agricultural production. - Explores the potential benefits of optimized rhizosphere - Includes metagenomics and their emerging importance - Presents insights into the use of biosurfactants

Plants are vulnerable to pathogens including fungi, bacteria, and viruses, which cause critical problems and deficits. Crop protection by plant breeding delivers a promising solution with no obvious effect on human health or the local ecosystem. Crop improvement has been the most powerful approach for producing unique crop cultivars since domestication occurred, making possible the main innovations in feeding the globe and community development. Genome editing is one of the genetic devices that can be implemented, and disease resistance is frequently cited as the most encouraging application of CRISPR/Cas9 technology in agriculture. Nanobiotechnology has harnessed the power of genome editing to develop agricultural crops. Nanosized DNA or RNA nanotechnology approaches could contribute to raising the stability and performance of CRISPR guide RNAs. This book brings together the latest research in these areas. CRISPR and RNAi Systems: Nanobiotechnology Approaches to Plant Breeding and Protection presents a complete understanding of the RNAi and CRISPR/Cas9 techniques for controlling mycotoxins, fighting plant nematodes, and detecting plant pathogens. CRISPR/Cas genome editing enables efficient targeted modification in most crops, thus promising to accelerate crop improvement. CRISPR/Cas9 can be used for management of plant insects, and various plant pathogens. The book is an important reference source for both plant scientists and environmental scientists who want to understand how nano biotechnologically based approaches are being used to create more efficient plant protection and plant breeding systems. - Shows how nanotechnology is being used as the basis for new solutions for more efficient plant breeding and plant protection - Outlines the major techniques and applications of both CRISPR and RNAi technologies - Assesses the major challenges of escalating these technologies on a mass scale

Wheat and Barley Grain Biofortification addresses topics associated with the alleviation of malnutrition in globally diverse populations via wheat and barley biofortification. The book synthesizes the current trends of malnutrition across the globe, the need for wheat and barley nutritional enhancement and how agronomic, microbial and molecular understanding of biofortification can help in devising significant approaches and strategies. In addition, it includes discussions on potential genetic variability available and their efficient utilization in wheat and barley for molecular breeding for nutrients, challenges and opportunities for bioavailability, and technical advancement for analysis of bioavailability. - Addresses the need for wheat and barley biofortification to address global nutrition demands - Places emphasis on the current agronomic and molecular understanding of biofortification - Discusses the potential utilization of genetic variability - Highlights the economics of biofortification over fortification technology

Plant hormones play a crucial role in controlling the way in which plants grow and develop. While metabolism provides the power and building blocks for plant life, it is the hormones that regulate the speed of growth of the individual parts and integrate them to produce the form that we recognize as a plant. This book is a description of these natural chemicals: how they are synthesized and metabolized, how they act at both the organismal and molecular levels, how we measure them, a description of some of the roles they play in regulating plant growth and development, and the prospects for the genetic engineering of hormone levels or responses in crop plants. This is an updated revision of the third edition of the highly acclaimed text. Thirty-three chapters, including two totally new chapters plus four chapter updates, written by a group of fifty-five international experts, provide the latest information on Plant Hormones, particularly with reference to such new topics as signal transduction, brassinosteroids, responses to disease, and expansins. The book is not a conference proceedings but a selected collection of carefully integrated and illustrated reviews describing our knowledge of plant hormones and the experimental work that is the foundation of this information. The Revised 3rd Edition adds important information that has emerged since the original publication of the 3rd edition. This includes information on the receptors for auxin, gibberellin, abscisic acid and jasmonates, in addition to new chapters on strigolactones, the branching hormones, and florigen, the flowering hormone.

In the context of increasing concern for food and environmental quality, use of Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) for reducing chemical inputs in agriculture is a potentially important issue. This book provides an update by renowned international experts on the most recent advances in the ecology of these important bacteria, the application of innovative methodologies for their study, their interaction with the host plant, and their potential application in agriculture.

Microbial communities and their functions play a crucial role in the management of ecological, environmental and agricultural health on the Earth. Microorganisms are the key identified players for plant growth promotion, plant immunization, disease suppression, induced resistance and tolerance against stresses as the indicative parameters of improved crop productivity and sustainable soil health. Beneficial belowground microbial interactions with the rhizosphere help plants mitigate drought and salinity stresses and alleviate water stresses under the unfavorable environmental conditions in the native soils. Microorganisms that are inhabitants of such environmental conditions have potential solutions for them. There are potential microbial communities that can degrade xenobiotic compounds, pesticides and toxic industrial chemicals and help remediate even heavy metals, and thus they find enormous applications in environmental remediation. Microbes have developed intrinsic metabolic capabilities with specific metabolic networks while inhabiting under specific conditions for many generations and, so play a crucial role. The book Microbial Interventions in Agriculture and Environment is an effort to compile and present a great volume of authentic, high-quality, socially-viable, practical and implementable research and technological work on microbial implications. The whole content of the volume covers protocols, methodologies, applications, interactions, role and impact of research and development aspects on microbial interventions and technological outcomes in prospects of agricultural and environmental domain including crop production, plan-soil health management, food & nutrition, nutrient recycling, land reclamation, clean water systems and agro-waste management, biodegradation & bioremediation, biomass to bioenergy, sanitation and rural livelihood security. The covered topics and sub-topics of the microbial domain have high implications for the targeted and wide readership of researchers, students, faculty and scientists working on these areas along with the agri-activists, policymakers, environmentalists, advisors etc. in the Government, industries and non-government level for reference and knowledge generation.

Biotechnology: Prospects and Applications covers the review of recent developments in biotechnology and international authorship presents global issues that help in our understanding of the role of biotechnology in solving important scientific and societal problems for the benefit of mankind and environment. A balanced coverage of basic molecular biology and practical applications, relevant examples, colored illustrations, and contemporary applications of biotechnology provide students and researchers with the tools and basic knowledge of biotechnology. In our effort to introduce students and researchers to cutting edge techniques and applications of biotechnology, we dedicated specific chapters to such emerging areas of biotechnology as Emerging Dynamics of Brassinosteroids Research, Third generation green energy, Bioremediation, Metal Organic Frameworks: New smart materials for biological application, Bioherbicides, Biosensors, Fetal Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Animal forensics. Biotechnology: Prospects and Applications will be highly useful for students, teachers and researchers in all disciplines of life sciences, agricultural sciences, medicine, and biotechnology in universities, research stations and biotechnology companies. The book features broader aspects of the role of biotechnology in human endeavor. It also presents an overview of prospects and applications while emphasizing modern, cutting-edge, and emerging areas of biotechnology. Further, it provides the readers with a comprehensive knowledge of topics in food and agricultural biotechnology, microbial biotechnology, environmental biotechnology and animal biotechnology. The chapters have been written with special reference to the latest developments in above broader areas of biotechnology that impact the biotechnology industry. A list of references at the end of each chapter is provided for the readers to learn more about a particular topic. Typically, these references include basic research, research papers, review articles and articles from the popular literature.