This book introduces readers to both seed treatment and seedling pretreatments, taking into account various factors such as plant age, growing conditions and climate. Reflecting recent advances in seed priming and pretreatment techniques, it demonstrates how these approaches can be used to improve stress tolerance and enhance crop productivity. Covering the basic phenomena involved, mechanisms and recent innovations, the book offers a comprehensive guide for students, researchers and scientists alike, particularly Plant Physiologists, Agronomists, Environmental Scientists, Biotechnologists, and Botanists, who will find essential information on physiology and stress tolerance. The book also provides a valuable source of information for professionals at seed companies, seed technologists, food scientists, policymakers, and agricultural development officers around the world.

New Challenges in Seed Biology - Basic and Translational Research Driving Seed Technology combines different aspects of basic and translational research in seed biology. A collection of eight chapters written by seed biology experts from the field of seed physiology, ecology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and seed technology was gathered. We hope that this book will attract the attention of researchers and technologists from academia and industry, providing points for interactive and fruitful discussion on this fascinating topic.

Most crop plants grow in environments that are suboptimal, which prevents the plants from attaining their full genetic potential for growth and reproduction. Stress due to abiotic and biotic agents has a significant effect on world food production. Annually, an estimated 15% of global yields are lost, but this figure belies far greater losses for specific food systems and the people whose existence is dependent upon them, particularly in developing countries. Current efforts to mitigate these losses are worryingly over-reliant on the use of sophisticated and costly chemicals /measures with substantial economic and environmental costs, or on the development of efficient and smart crop varieties, which can take decades. What we need is a broad range of safe, robust and equitable solutions for food producers. One under-investigated approach is that of utilizing the crop plant’s innate immune system to resist stress. More specifically, the innate immune system can be sensitized or ‘primed’ to respond more quickly and strongly to protect the plant against stresses. However, a strategy of employing priming in combination with reduced pesticide use can enhance protection, and help to meet commitments to reducing chemical inputs in agriculture. This book discusses in detail different segments of priming in addressing stress factors and traits to increase competitiveness against all odds. Adopting a holistic and systematic approach, it addresses priming to counter climate-change related adverse effects coupled with pest and pathogen related stress on the productivity of crops utilizing natural resources to reap sustainable environmental, economic and social benefits for potential productivity of crops, maintaining synergy between soil, water and plants in ways that mimic nature.

Priming-Mediated Stress and Cross-Stress Tolerance in Crop Plants provides the latest, in-depth understanding of the molecular mechanisms associated with the development of stress and cross-stress tolerance in plants. Plants growing under field conditions are constantly exposed, either sequentially or simultaneously, to many abiotic or biotic stress factors. As a result, many plants have developed unique strategies to respond to ever-changing environmental conditions, enabling them to monitor their surroundings and adjust their metabolic systems to maintain homeostasis. Recently, priming mediated stress and cross-stress tolerance (i.e., greater tolerance to a second, stronger stress after exposure to a different, milder primary stress) have attracted considerable interest within the scientific community as potential means of stress management and for producing stress-resistant crops to aid global food security. Priming-Mediated Stress and Cross-Stress Tolerance in Crop Plants comprehensively reviews the physiological, biochemical, and molecular basis of cross-tolerance phenomena, allowing researchers to develop strategies to enhance crop productivity under stressful conditions and to utilize natural resources more efficiently. The book is a valuable asset for plant and agricultural scientists in corporate or government environments, as well as educators and advanced students looking to promote future research into plant stress tolerance. - Provides comprehensive information for developing multiple stress-tolerant crop varieties - Includes in-depth physiological, biochemical, and molecular information associated with cross-tolerance - Includes contribution from world-leading cross-tolerance research group - Presents color images and diagrams for effective communication of key concepts

Miniaturized Analytical Devices An in-depth overview of integrating functionalized nanomaterials with mass spectrometry, spectroscopy, electrophoresis, and other important analytical techniques Miniaturized Analytical Devices: Materials and Technology is an up-to-date resource exploring the analytical applications of miniaturized technology in areas such as clinical microbiology, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and environmental analysis. The book covers the integration of functional nanomaterials in mass spectrometry, microscopy, electrophoresis, and more—providing the state-of-the-art information required for successfully implementing a range of chemical analysis techniques on microchips. Featuring contributions from a panel of international experts in the field, the book begins with an introduction to selected miniaturized devices, nanomaterials, and analytical methods. Subsequent sections describe functionalized nanomaterials (FNMs) for miniaturized devices and discuss techniques such as miniaturized mass spectrometry for bioassays and miniaturized microscopy for cell imaging. The book concludes by exploring a variety of applications of miniaturized devices in areas including metal analysis, bioimaging, DNA separation and analysis, molecular biology, and more. This timely volume: Surveys the current state of the field and provides a starting point for developing faster, more reliable, and more selective analytical devices Focuses on the practical applications of miniaturized analytical devices in materials science, clinical microbiology, the pharmaceutical industry, and environmental analysis Covers a wide range of materials and analytical techniques such as microvolume UV-VIS spectroscopy, microchip and capillary electrophoresis, and matrix assisted laser desorption ionization-mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) analysis Discusses the role of miniaturized analytical devices in securing a green and sustainable future Miniaturized Analytical Devices: Materials and Technology is essential reading for analytical chemists, analytical laboratories, materials scientists, biologists, life scientists, and advanced students in related fields.

Demystifies the genetic, biochemical, physiological, and molecular mechanisms underlying heat stress tolerance in plants Heat stress—when high temperatures cause irreversible damage to plant function or development—severely impairs the growth and yield of agriculturally important crops. As the global population mounts and temperatures continue to rise, it is crucial to understand the biochemical, physiological, and molecular mechanisms of thermotolerance to develop ‘climate-smart’ crops. Heat Stress Tolerance in Plants provides a holistic, cross-disciplinary survey of the latest science in this important field. Presenting contributions from an international team of plant scientists and researchers, this text examines heat stress, its impact on crop plants, and various mechanisms to modulate tolerance levels. Topics include recent advances in molecular genetic approaches to increasing heat tolerance, the potential role of biochemical and molecular markers in screening germplasm for thermotolerance, and the use of next-generation sequencing to unravel the novel genes associated with defense and metabolite pathways. This insightful book: Places contemporary research on heat stress in plants within the context of global climate change and population growth Includes diverse analyses from physiological, biochemical, molecular, and genetic perspectives Explores various approaches to increasing heat tolerance in crops of high commercial value, such as cotton Discusses the applications of plant genomics in the development of thermotolerant ‘designer crops’ An important contribution to the field, Heat Stress Tolerance in Plants is an invaluable resource for scientists, academics, students, and researchers working in fields of pulse crop biochemistry, physiology, genetics, breeding, and biotechnology.

Global climate change is bound to create a number of abiotic and biotic stresses in the environment, which would affect the overall growth and productivity of plants. Like other living beings, plants have the ability to protect themselves by evolving various mechanisms against stresses, despite being sessile in nature. They manage to withstand extremes of temperature, drought, flooding, salinity, heavy metals, atmospheric pollution, toxic chemicals and a variety of living organisms, especially viruses, bacteria, fungi, nematodes, insects and arachnids and weeds. Incidence of abiotic stresses may alter the plant-pest interactions by enhancing susceptibility of plants to pathogenic organisms. These interactions often change plant response to abiotic stresses. Plant growth regulators modulate plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses, and regulate their growth and developmental cascades. A number of physiological and molecular processes that act together in a complex regulatory network, further manage these responses. Crosstalk between autophagy and hormones also occurs to develop tolerance in plants towards multiple abiotic stresses. Similarly, biostimulants, in combination with correct agronomic practices, have shown beneficial effects on plant metabolism due to the hormonal activity that stimulates different metabolic pathways. At the same time, they reduce the use of agrochemicals and impart tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress. Further, the use of bio- and nano-fertilizers seem to hold promise to improve the nutrient use efficiency and hence the plant yield under stressful environments. It has also been shown that the seed priming agents impart stress tolerance. Additionally, tolerance or resistance to stress may also be induced by using specific chemical compounds such as polyamines, proline, glycine betaine, hydrogen sulfide, silicon, β-aminobutyric acid, γ-aminobutyric acid and so on. This book discusses the advances in plant performance under stressful conditions. It should be very useful to graduate students, researchers, and scientists in the fields of botanical science, crop science, agriculture, horticulture, ecological and environmental science.

Allelopathy offers great potential: (a) to increase agriculture production (food grains, vegetables, fruits, forestry), (b) to decrease harmful effects of modern agricultural practices (multiple cropping, leaching losses from N – fertilizers, indiscriminate use of pesticides viz. weedicides, fungicides, insecticides and nematicides and development of pesticides tolerant /resistant biotypes in pests) on soil health/productivity and on environment and (c) to maintain soil productivity and pollution free environment for our future generations. It is hoped that in the near future the allelopathy may be used in crop production, crop protection, agroforestry and agro-horticultural systems of developed countries. Therefore, it may be one of the strategies to increase agricultural production in Sustainable Agriculture of 21st century. This book is based on the research findings and addresses to various intricate problems of crop production, to which there was no definite answer in the past but now have been attributed to allelopathy.