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This edited book highlights the multifunctional role of the ubiquitous molecule, melatonin in crop plants. The major focus of this edition is to provide a comprehensive insight into the key focus is on Melatonin mediated alleviation of abiotic stresses and pathogens infection. The inception of melatonin as an animal hormone and the subsequent discovery of its multifaceted function in the animal system has revolutionized the research on this penial hormone. During the last decade, the discovery, quantification and functional studies of melatonin as phytohormone has emerged at a rapid pace. Recently, this phyto-protectant has become an integral component of lab and field-based research on the mitigation of adverse effects of climate-driven abiotic stresses and postharvest biology and technology.The book explores melatonin mediated management of various abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, heat and cold temperature. The book also focuses on role of melatonin in heavy metal stress, viral, bacterial, and fungal diseases, and, also contains chapter on melatonin facilitated nutrient use efficiency in plants. This book is of interest to postharvest industries, horticulturists, scientists, researchers, and students.

This book brings together the molecular aspects of the pathogenesis of entomopathogenic fungi, various aspects of mycoinsecticide development, and regulatory aspects to highlight the immense contribution of the agricultural sector. The chapters address aspects of entomopathogenic fungi, including host-pathogen interactions (susceptibility and resistance), fungus-insect and fungus-fungus dual interactions, phylogeny and taxonomy, biochemistry, and molecular basis of enteropathogenesis, market potential of entomopathogens, regulatory aspects, bioprospecting of fungi, fungi as crop bodyguards and in disease suppression, and consortia for the control of insect pests and pathogens in single crop systems. Written by experts in academia and industry from Algeria, Brazil, Hungary, India, Italy, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, and the United States, the book overviews entomopathogenic fungi used as biological control agents against insect pests and other arthropods, their mode of action, pathogenesis, bioactive metabolites, mycotoxins involved, their mass production, limitations, and agricultural- and environment-related issues. It also includes developing various biopesticide products, with special references to formulations and prospects. In agriculture, crop protection and production depend on insect pests controlled by entomopathogenic fungi. Understanding the pathogenicity, mechanism of action, formulations, and applications of a wide array of entomopathogenic fungi as biopesticides is a valid eco-friendly approach. The book provides advances in pathogenicity, biochemistry, virulence, and interaction that facilitate the application of Beauveria, Metarhizium, and other entomopathogens as potential biopesticides against major insect pests. Developments in bioactive compounds, secondary metabolites, enzymes, and toxins of entomopathogenic fungi have facilitated precise applications and management to target insect pests. Further advances in molecular aspects, the formulation of nanobiopesticides, and biofabricated technology paved the way for insect pest control. This book will be a helpful resource for students, teachers, researchers, scientists, and professionals in the industry working on biological sciences, applied entomology, mycology, zoology, forestry, biochemistry, molecular biology, and nanotechnology.

The accumulation of large amounts of contaminants occurs in the environment due to industrialization and various other anthropogenic activities. Contaminants ultimately affect human health worldwide. Organic, inorganic, and radioactive substances are the prevalent forms of environmental contaminants and their complete remediation in soils and sediments is rather a difficult task. Concerns of their toxicities led to the emphasis on development of effective techniques to assess the presence and mobility of contaminants in air, water, and soil. Furthermore, the ever-increasing concentration of toxic pollutants in the environment is considered a serious threat to plant, animal, human, and environmental health.Many technologies are in use to clean and eliminate hazardous contaminants from the environment; however, these technologies can be costly, labor intensive, and often distressing to the general public. Phytoremediation is a simple, cost effective, environmentally friendly and fast-emerging new technology for eliminating toxic contaminants from different environments. Phytoremediation refers to the natural ability of certain plants and their associated microbiome (including hyper-accumulators or bio-accumulators) to remove, degrade, or render contaminants harmless. Through this technique, certain species of plants flourish by accumulating contaminants present in the environment. The unique and selective uptake capabilities of plant root and shoot systems, effective translocation, bioaccumulation, and contaminant degradation capabilities of the accumulator plants are utilized in phytoremediation techniques. Phytotechnologies involving the use of plants for contaminant removal gained importance during the last two decades and phytoremediation technology became an effective tool for environmental detoxification because of plants ability to accumulate the contaminants at very high concentrations.Phytoremediation strategies can remove, degrade, or stabilize inorganic and organic contaminants entering a multitude of ecosystems using green plants and their associated microbial communities. The development and use of phytotechnologies continues to move forward at a steady pace. Researchers recognize the potential of phytoremediation to offer a green, cost effective, eco-friendly and feasible application to address some of the world's many environmental challenges. This book provides significant information to add to the previous volumes published on the topic and can serve as the foundation for the development of new applications that feature the integration of modern research discoveries into new methods to remediate contaminated ecosystems. Moreover, this volume brings recent and established knowledge on different aspects of phytoremediation and nano-phytoremediation, providing this information in a single source that offers a cutting-edge synthesis of scientific and experiential knowledge on polluted environments that is useful for policy makers, practitioners and scientists, and engineers.Phytoremediation: Management of Environmental Contaminants, Volume 7 highlights the various prospects that are involved in current global phytoremediation research. This book delivers a content-rich source to the reader and can act as a platform for further research studies. It should meet the needs of all researchers working in, or have an interest in this particular field.

The book deals with latest research achievements of Brassica scientists using omics approaches in understanding host-pathogen interaction, molecular detection, identification, and functional characterization of effectors/genes including pathogenomics and biometabolomics. Genomics of host-pathogen interaction is a source of information for the teachers, students, researchers, and policy makers to foster success in enhancing the Brassica production and productivity through the development of improved disease-resistant varieties with the use of omics technologies. It is a base and sound plate form for managing biological stresses of Brassica at global level. The book covers up-to-date information on genomics of host-pathogen interaction, pathogenomics of crucifers'pathogen, and biometabolomics of host pathosystem supplemented with ample photographs, illustrations, and figures which make it stimulating, effective, and easy to comprehend for readers, researchers, biology students, teachers, and policy makers.

This book presents the state of the skill of understanding brassinosteroids (BRs) signaling plus crosstalk with phytohormone and their association in plant adaptation to abiotic stresses comprising physiological, biochemical, and molecular developments. Due to progressively adverse environmental conditions and scarce natural resources, high-efficient crops have become more important than ever. For the successful improvement of stress-tolerant plants, it is vital to understand the precise signaling appliances that plants practice to abide stresses as well as how much these mechanisms are convinced by phytohormone. However, it is also debatable on which step plants can attain brassinosteroids (BRs) signaling from an evolutionary viewpoint. BRs are involved in modulating a large array of important functions throughout a plant's life cycles. BRs are considered as one of the most important plant steroidal hormones that show a varied role in observing a wide range of developmental practices in plants. Our grip on brassinosteroids signaling has quickly extended over the past two decades, owing in part to the isolation of the constituents intricate in the signal transduction trail. The book proposes a useful guide for plant researchers and graduate students in connected areas.

This book offers a comprehensive guide to the identification, detection, characterization, classification and management of plant pathogens and other beneficial microbes in agriculture. The science of plant pathology is a dynamic field and, given the growing interest in sustainable agricultural practices, plant disease management has also gained importance. Further, there has been a shift from traditional chemical-based methods to eco-friendly integrated disease management strategies with a greater focus on bio-control and other eco-friendly technologies. This book provides a comprehensive and timely account of latest concepts and advances in the field of plant pathology, including detection and diagnosis, host resistance, disease forecasting and plant biotechnological approaches. Accordingly, it will be of great interest to academics and all stakeholders working in the fields of plant pathology, microbiology, biotechnology, plant breeding, and other life sciences.

As food producers, plants are constantly under attack by insects. Over the course of evolution, plants have not only developed a sophisticated defense apparatus but have also refined biochemical defense mechanisms to protect themselves, thereby maintaining the ecological balance. Plant-pest interactions induce an elaborate array of reactions involving the release of volatile compounds, effector and signaling molecules, trans-membrane proteins, and a variety of enzymes and hormones. This book offers a comprehensive guide to the strategies that plants employ against insects and other pests to ensure their continued survival. Addressing an important gap in the literature, it shares the latest findings in the field of plant–pest interactions for a broad audience. Providing an overview of the current state of knowledge on plant-pest interactions and their role in the genetic improvement of crops, it offers an essential guide for researchers and professionals in the fields of agriculture, plant pathology, entomology, cell biology, molecular biology and genetics.

The regulation of the phosphorylation/dephosphorylation process, resulting in “cellular switches” that monitor normal plant physiology, growth and development, has immense potential in crop systems. With much of the information in the nascent stages, coming largely from Arabidopsis and rice particularly, the use of cell biology, genetic screens, biochemical approaches aided by an omics approach should help unravel the detail functional information available about signaling pathways in plants. The regulation could be exploited to develop crop varieties better equipped to handle changing environments and enhance agricultural productivity. In the post-genomic era, one of the major challenges is investigation and understanding of multiple genes and gene families regulating a particular physiological and developmental aspect of plant life cycle. One of the important physiological processes is regulation of stress response, which leads to adaptationor adjustment in response to adverse stimuli. With the holistic understanding of the signaling pathways involving phosphatases, one gene family or multiple genes or gene families, plant biologist can lay a foundation for designing and generating future crops, which can withstand the higher degree of environmental stresses. Especially abiotic stresses, which are the major cause of crop loss throughout the world without losing crop yield and productivity.This book incorporates the contributions from leading plant biologists in the field of stress-mediated dephosphorylation by phosphatases as an important task to elucidate the aspects of stress signaling by functional genomic approaches.

Plant growth and development is closely dependent on the plant environment, including the wide-spread presence of organic and inorganic xenobiotics and pollutants. Currently, heavy metals are the most common inorganic environmental pollutants and they have pronounced effects and consequences not only for plants, but also for the ecosystem in which the plants form an integral component. It has been suggested that these contaminants accumulate in agricultural crops, thus entering the food chain and posing a significant health risk. Plants growing in polluted sites exhibit altered metabolism, reduced growth, and decreased biomass production. These pollutants adhere to plant roots and exert physical or chemical toxicity and subsequently cell death in plants. Yet, plants have developed various defence mechanisms to counteract the toxicity induced by heavy metals. Only detailed study of the processes and mechanisms would allow researchers and students to understand the interactions, responses, and adaptations of plants to these pollutants; however, there are several unresolved issues and challenges regarding the interaction and biological effects of heavy metals. Therefore, this volume provides relevant, state-of-the-art findings on environmental phytotoxicity and the mechanisms of such interactions at the cellular and molecular levels. This volume consists of chapters on relevant topics contributed by different experts or group of experts so as to make available a comprehensive treatise designed to provide an in-depth analysis of heavy metals phytotoxicity. This book may serve as a reference to scientists, researchers and students in the fields of toxicology, environmental toxicology, phytotoxicology, plant biology, plant physiology, plant biochemistry and plant molecular biology, and especially those interested in heavy metals toxicology.

This Reference Work is devoted to plant secondary metabolites and their evolutionary adaptation to different hosts and pests. Secondary metabolites play an important biological role in plants'defence against herbivores, abiotic stresses and pathogens, and they also attract beneficial organisms such as pollinators. In this work, readers will find a comprehensive review of the phytochemical diversity, modification and adaptation of secondary metabolites, and the consequences of their co-evolution with plant parasites, pollinators, and herbivores. Chapters from expert contributors are organised into twelve sections that collate the current knowledge in intra-/inter-specific diversity in plant secondary metabolites, changes in secondary metabolites during plants'adaptation to different environmental conditions, and co-evolution of host-parasite metabolites. Among the twelve themed parts, readers will also discover expert analysis on the genetics and chemical ecology evolution ofsecondary metabolites, and particular attention is also given to allelochemicals, bioactive molecules in plant defence and the evolution of sensory perception in vertebrates. This reference work will appeal to students, researchers and professionals interested in the field of plant pathology, plant breeding, biotechnology, agriculture and phytochemistry.

With advances in agro-technology, cucurbits are now being grown throughout the year. However, they are prone to biotic and abiotic stresses resulting in significant yield loss. Sustainable management of such stresses is a complex issue in the intensive cultivation of cucurbits involving high levels of fertilization and irrigation. Further, under the changing climatic conditions, pest scenarios vary constantly, with invasive alien species of pests becoming more common as a result of free trade and frequent international travel. As such, agrochemicals are being used as powerful weapons to combat the increasing number of pests and diseases. Lack of proper crop management technologies, inaccurate diagnosis, and indiscriminate and excessive use of pesticides are major causes of pesticide resistance and resurgence, environmental pollution, and hazards to the non-target biota. This comprehensive book provides essential insights into the management of biotic and abioticstresses in cucurbit cultivation and re-evaluating the role of agrochemicals, and gathers information on insect pests, mites, nematodes, diseases and weeds, as well as on their sustainable management from scattered sources. Written in language that is easy to understand and including high-quality photographs, it is a valuable resource for students, researchers, plant protection specialists, extension workers, and growers.

This book illustrates the currently available strategies for managing phytonematodes. It discusses the latest findings on plant-pathogen-microbiome interactions and their impacts on ecosystems, and provides extensive information on the application of microorganisms in the sustainable management of phytonematodes. This is followed by an in-depth discussion of the application of potential strains of biocontrol fungi, endophytes and actinomycetes to enhance plants'ability to fend off phytonematode attacks, leading to improved plant health. In conclusion, the book addresses new aspects like the biofabrication of nanoparticles and their application in plant disease management, and presents an extensive list for further reading.

An improved understanding of the interactions between nanoparticles and plant retorts, including their uptake, localization, and activity, could revolutionize crop production through increased disease resistance, nutrient utilization, and crop yield. This may further impact other agricultural and industrial processes that are based on plant crops.This two-volume book analyses the key processes involved in the nanoparticle delivery to plants and details the interactions between plants and nanomaterials. Potential plant nanotechnology applications for enhanced nutrient uptake, increased crop productivity and plant disease management are evaluated with careful consideration regarding safe use, social acceptance and ecological impact of these technologies.Plant Nanobionics: Volume 1, Advances in the Understanding of Nanomaterials Research and Applications begins the discussion of nanotechnology applications in plants with the characterization and nanosynthesis of various microbes and covers the mechanisms and etiology of nanostructure function in microbial cells. It focuses on the potential alteration of plant production systems through the controlled release of agrochemicals and targeted delivery of biomolecules. Industrial and medical applications are included. Volume 2 continues this discussion with a focus on biosynthesis and toxicity.

Plant Nanobionics, Volume 2 continues the important discussion of nanotechnology in plants, but focuses with a focus on biosynthesis and toxicity. This book discusses novel approaches to biosynthesis of nanoparticles for the increase of plant production systems, controlled release of agrochemicals and management of plant biotic stress. Green biosynthesis of metallic nanoparticles from bee propolis, artificial photosynthesis and hybrid structures are presented.Although engineered nanoparticles have great potential for solving many agricultural and societal problems, their consequences on the ecosystems and environment must be responsibly considered. This volume aims to contribute to the limited literature on this topic through its comprehensive examination of nanoparticle toxicity on plants, microbes and human health. Environmental risks with recent data are discussed as well as risks associated with the transfer of nanoparticles through the food chain. This volume highlights the study of a mechanistic approach and the study of nanoparticles towards nanobionics. The application of polymeric materials for smart packing in the food industry and agriculture sector as well as the future of nanomaterials in detecting soil microbes for environmental remediation are also included.

This book discusses the latest developments in plant-mediated fabrication of metal and metal-oxide nanoparticles, and their characterization by using a variety of modern techniques. It explores in detail the application of nanoparticles in drug delivery, cancer treatment, catalysis, and as antimicrobial agent, antioxidant and the promoter of plant production and protection. Application of these nanoparticles in plant systems has started only recently and information is still scanty about their possible effects on plant growth and development. Accumulation and translocation of nanoparticles in plants, and the consequent growth response and stress modulation are not well understood. Plants exposed to these particles exhibit both positive and negative effects, depending on the concentration, size, and shape of the nanoparticles. The impact on plant growth and yield is often positive at lower concentrations and negative at higher ones. Exposure to some nanoparticles may improve the free-radical scavenging potential and antioxidant enzymatic activities in plants and alter the micro-RNAs expression that regulate the different morphological, physiological and metabolic processes in plant system, leading to improved plant growth and yields. The nanoparticles also carry out genetic reforms by efficient transfer of DNA or complete plastid genome into the respective plant genome due to their miniscule size and improved site-specific penetration. Moreover, controlled application of nanomaterials in the form of nanofertilizer offers a more synchronized nutrient fluidity with the uptake by the plant exposed, ensuring an increased nutrient availability. This book addresses these issues and many more. It covers fabrication of different/specific nanomaterials and their wide-range application in agriculture sector, encompassing the controlled release of nutrients, nutrient-use efficiency, genetic exchange, production of secondary metabolites, defense mechanisms, and the growth andproductivity of plants exposed to different manufactured nanomaterials. The role of nanofertilizers and nano-biosensors for improving plant production and protection and the possible toxicities caused by certain nanomaterials, the aspects that are little explored by now, have also been generously elucidated.

The earliest land-plants evolved around 450 million years ago from aquatic plants devoid of vascular systems. The diversification of flowering plants (angiosperms) during the Cretaceous period is associated with speciation in insects. Early insect herbivores were mandibulate, but the evolution of vascular plants led to the co-evolution of other forms of herbivory, such as leaf feeding, sap-sucking, leaf mining, tissue borer, gall forming and nectar-feeding. Plant defense against biotic stress is an adaptive evolution by plants to increase their fitness. Plants use a variety of strategies to defend against damage caused by herbivores. Plant defense mechanisms are either inbuilt or induced. Inbuilt mechanisms are always present within the plant, while induced defenses are produced or mobilized to the site where a plant is injured. Induced defense mechanisms include morphological, physiological changes and production of secondary metabolites.Host plant resistance (HPR) is one of the eco-friendly methods of pest management. It protects the crop by making it less suitable or tolerant to the pest. While books on theoretical aspects of HPR are available, an exclusive book on the practical aspects is lacking. There is a wide gap between the theory and the experimental procedures required for conducting studies on plant resistance for the post graduate students and young researchers. A dire need for a book on practical aspects was strongly felt. Initially a practical manual was prepared which eventually evolved into the present book. We hope this book provides information on major aspects of screening crop germplasm, sampling techniques, genetic and biochemical basis of HPR, behavioural studies on pheromone and plant volatiles, and some of the recent approaches in HPR. Further, the references provide the scientific articles and books as additional information to readers and workers alike.