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Phytohormones and Stress Responsive Secondary Metabolites provides a deep dive into the signaling pathways associated with phytohormones and phytometabolites. With a strong focus on plant stress responses and DNA technology, the book highlights plant biotechnology and metabolic engineering principles. Biotechnology, by using DNA editing technologies, allows the expression of plant genes into other plant species with desirable modulation on plant behavior. Beginning with an overview of phytohormone signaling, growth and abiotic and biotic stresses, subsequent chapters explore DNA modification strategies, epigenetic and epigenomic regulation, and miRNA regulation. This book will be an essential resource for students, researchers and agriculturalists interested in plant physiology, plant genetics and plant biotechnology. Provides a comprehensive review of phytohormone and phytometabolite signaling pathways Highlights recombinant DNA technology and therapeutic potential Analyzes plant stress responses under both abiotic and biotic stresses

Mulberry (Morus spp.) is widely distributed tree taxon found almost in every continent across the globe. Habitat of this plant species is very much diversified, as it is found across all climatic zones ranging from tropical, sub-tropical, temperate, tundra, semi-arid to desert (arid) conditions. It flourishes on all types of landforms; mountains, valleys, plateaus, forests, grasslands, hills, plains and arid lands. Successful utilization of mulberry leaf for silkworm rearing and production of quality cocoons has been studied at length. Now, mulberry is being recognized as a multipurpose plant by most of the countries across the globe. As mulberry is eco-friendly in nature, the propagation of mulberry needs to be done at large scale to address the ecological issues like conversion of arid lands to cultivable lands, eco-restoration of degraded lands, bioremediation of polluted land sites, conservation of water and soil, cleaning the air pollution in urban areas, utilization of mulberry in producing renewable energy in the form of biodiesel. Similarly, there is the need to produce the identified and highly commercially valued pharmaceutical compounds of mulberry under laboratory conditions through in vitro culture based secondary metabolite production through enhanced expression under the stress conditions or in presence of elicitors.Lately protocols have been developed for genetic transformation of mulberry through agrobacterium mediated and particle bombardment mediated gene transfer techniques. Biotechnology based molecular breeding techniques could also be utilized in raising the improved lines through marker assisted selection, soma clonal variations, mutational breeding, somatic hybridization, genome editing and other genetic engineering approaches. Apart from sericulture; mulberry should also be utilized and exploited in other sectors across the globe for additional revenue generation, for livestock maintenance, for environmental safety and in promoting human health.These diversified aspects of mulberry coupled with its economic importance in revenue generation through sericulture, animal husbandry and industrial products has prompted us to prepare this book. It will present a comprehensive account of mulberry plant under 9 chapter headings: introduction, botanical features, ecological features, ecophysiological aspects, interactions and development, molecular aspects, propagation and production, economic importance, and global perspectives as well as future approaches.

Most imperative environmental concerns are Cultural eutrophication pertaining to industrialization and urbanization which lead to proliferation of weeds in aquatic environs disturbing these ecosystems. Alarming increase in CO2, CH4, CFC's, N2O and water vapour in the atmosphere cause enhanced greenhouse effect, among all these CO2 is accountable for 55-60% of total enhanced effect. Phyto- and Nutrient sequestration via plants helps storage of atmospheric CO2 in the vegetation to get rid of contaminants. Carbon and nutrient sequestration can be braided together for sustainable development goals. The chapters adopt the hierarchy as follows: significance of quality environs, quantification and bio-monitoring of culprit contaminants, the issues relevant to global warming and accelerated eutrophication and their ecological impacts followed by various sequestration technologies.

Since ancient times, plants serve as a valuable source of traditional herbal medicines. Unlike modern medicines, herbal medicines have consistently demonstrated health advantages, including a lack of serious adverse side effects, long-lasting curative impacts and overall cost-effectiveness. Even today, with various modern pharmaceutical medicines commonly available, plant-based medicines and aromatics are increasingly in demand throughout the health sector globally, where they are used not only for the treatment of disease, but also, preventatively for maintaining good health. People are seeking alternatives to modern medical treatments turning to phytomedicine for primary health care. However, an inadvertent consequence of this increased demand for herbal medicines has resulted in medicinal plants being threatened due to their initial small population sizes, narrow distribution areas, habitat specificity, and increasingly destructive non-sustainable harvesting. This book critically examines and reviews the status of medicinal plants and includes several important case studies of representative plant species. It contains information on aspects concerning phytochemistry, natural products, cultivation, conservation techniques, environmental interactions, and therapeutic features of medicinal aromatic plants.Features Evaluates plants as medicine and aromatics covering pharmacognosy and ecology of plants having therapeutic values. Discusses how plants can play a role in treatment of diseases and as potential therapeutics standards for maintaining good health. Presents conventional and contemporary approaches to conservation of such plants with commercial feasibility.

Climate Change and Food Security with Emphasis on Wheat is the first book to present the full scope of research in wheat improvement, revealing the correlations to global issues including climate change and global warming which contribute to food security issues. Wheat plays a key role in the health of the global economy. As the world population continuously increases, economies modernize, and incomes rise, wheat production will have to increase dramatically to secure it as a reliable and sustainable food source. Since covering more land area with wheat crops is not a sustainable option, future wheat crops must have consistently higher yields and be able to resist and/or tolerate biotic and abiotic stresses that result from climate change. Addressing the biophysical and socioeconomic constraints of producing high-yielding, disease-resistant, and good quality wheat, this book will aid in research efforts to increase and stabilize wheat production worldwide. Written by an international team of experts, Climate Change and Food Security with Emphasis on Wheat is an excellent resource for academics, researchers, and students interested in wheat and grain research, especially as it is relevant to food security. Covers a wide range of disciplines, including plant breeding, genetics, agronomy, physiology, pathology, quantitative genetics and genomics, biotechnology and gene editing Explores the effect of climate change on biotic stresses (stripe rust, stem rust, leaf rust, Karnal bunt, spot blotch) on wheat production and utilization of biotechnology Focuses on whole genome sequencing and next-generation sequencing technologies to improve wheat quality and address the issue of malnutrition in developing world

Early anthropological evidence for plant use as medicine is 60,000 years old as reported from the Neanderthal grave in Iraq. The importance of plants as medicine is further supported by archeological evidence from Asia and the Middle East. Today, around 1.4 billion people in South Asia alone have no access to modern health care, and rely instead on traditional medicine to alleviate various symptoms. On a global basis, approximately 50 to 80 thousand plant species are used either natively or as pharmaceutical derivatives for life-threatening conditions that include diabetes, hypertension and cancers. As the demand for plant-based medicine rises, there is an unmet need to investigate the quality, safety and efficacy of these herbals by the “scientific methods”. Current research on drug discovery from medicinal plants involves a multifaceted approach combining botanical, phytochemical, analytical, and molecular techniques. For instance, high throughput robotic screens have been developed by industry; it is now possible to carry out 50,000 tests per day in the search for compounds which act on a key enzyme or a subset of receptors. This and other bioassays thus offer hope that one may eventually identify compounds for treating a variety of diseases or conditions. However, drug development from natural products is not without its problems. Frequent challenges encountered include the procurement of raw materials, the selection and implementation of appropriate high-throughput bioassays, and the scaling-up of preparative procedures. Research scientists should therefore arm themselves with the right tools and knowledge in order to harness the vast potentials of plant-based therapeutics. The main objective of Plant and Human Health is to serve as a comprehensive guide for this endeavor. Volume 1 highlights how humans from specific areas or cultures use indigenous plants. Despite technological developments, herbal drugs still occupy a preferential place in a majority of the population in the third world and have slowly taken roots as alternative medicine in the West. The integration of modern science with traditional uses of herbal drugs is important for our understanding of this ethnobotanical relationship. Volume 2 deals with the phytochemical and molecular characterization of herbal medicine. Specifically, It will focus on the secondary metabolic compounds which afford protection against diseases. Lastly, Volume 3 focuses on the physiological mechanisms by which the active ingredients of medicinal plants serve to improve human health. Together this three-volume collection intends to bridge the gap for herbalists, traditional and modern medical practitioners, and students and researchers in botany and horticulture.

Early anthropological evidence for plant use as medicine is 60,000 years old as reported from the Neanderthal grave in Iraq. The importance of plants as medicine is further supported by archeological evidence from Asia and the Middle East. Today, around 1.4 billion people in South Asia alone have no access to modern health care, and rely instead on traditional medicine to alleviate various symptoms. On a global basis, approximately 50 to 80 thousand plant species are used either natively or as pharmaceutical derivatives for life-threatening conditions that include diabetes, hypertension and cancers. As the demand for plant-based medicine rises, there is an unmet need to investigate the quality, safety and efficacy of these herbals by the “scientific methods”. Current research on drug discovery from medicinal plants involves a multifaceted approach combining botanical, phytochemical, analytical, and molecular techniques. For instance, high throughput robotic screens have been developed by industry; it is now possible to carry out 50,000 tests per day in the search for compounds which act on a key enzyme or a subset of receptors. This and other bioassays thus offer hope that one may eventually identify compounds for treating a variety of diseases or conditions. However, drug development from natural products is not without its problems. Frequent challenges encountered include the procurement of raw materials, the selection and implementation of appropriate high-throughput bioassays, and the scaling-up of preparative procedures.Research scientists should therefore arm themselves with the right tools and knowledge in order to harness the vast potentials of plant-based therapeutics. The main objective of Plant and Human Health is to serve as a comprehensive guide for this endeavor. Volume 1 highlights how humans from specific areas or cultures use indigenous plants. Despite technological developments, herbal drugs still occupy a preferential place in a majority of the population in the third world and have slowly taken roots as alternative medicine in the West. The integration of modern science with traditional uses of herbal drugs is important for our understanding of this ethnobotanical relationship. Volume 2 deals with the phytochemical and molecular characterization of herbal medicine. Specifically, it will focus on the secondary metabolic compounds which afford protection against diseases. Lastly, Volume 3 focuses on the physiological mechanisms by which the active ingredients of medicinal plants serve to improve human health. Together this three-volume collection intends to bridge the gap for herbalists, traditional and modern medical practitioners, and students and researchers in botany and horticulture.

Early anthropological evidence for plant use as medicine is 60,000 years old as reported from the Neanderthal grave in Iraq. The importance of plants as medicine is further supported by archeological evidence from Asia and the Middle East. Today, around 1.4 billion people in South Asia alone have no access to modern health care, and rely instead on traditional medicine to alleviate various symptoms. On a global basis, approximately 50 to 80 thousand plant species are used either natively or as pharmaceutical derivatives for life-threatening conditions that include diabetes, hypertension and cancers. As the demand for plant-based medicine rises, there is an unmet need to investigate the quality, safety and efficacy of these herbals by the “scientific methods”. Current research on drug discovery from medicinal plants involves a multifaceted approach combining botanical, phytochemical, analytical, and molecular techniques. For instance, high throughput robotic screens have been developed by industry; it is now possible to carry out 50,000 tests per day in the search for compounds, which act on a key enzyme or a subset of receptors. This and other bioassays thus offer hope that one may eventually identify compounds for treating a variety of diseases or conditions. However, drug development from natural products is not without its problems. Frequent challenges encountered include the procurement of raw materials, the selection and implementation of appropriate high-throughput bioassays, and the scaling-up of preparative procedures. Research scientists should therefore arm themselves with the right tools and knowledge in order to harness the vast potentials of plant-based therapeutics. The main objective of Plant and Human Health is to serve as a comprehensive guide for this endeavor. Volume 1 highlights how humans from specific areas or cultures use indigenous plants. Despite technological developments, herbal drugs still occupy a preferential place in a majority of the population in the third world and have slowly taken roots as alternative medicine in the West. The integration of modern science with traditional uses of herbal drugs is important for our understanding of this ethnobotanical relationship. Volume 2 deals with the phytochemical and molecular characterization of herbal medicine. Specifically, it focuess on the secondary metabolic compounds, which afford protection against diseases. Lastly, Volume 3 discusses the physiological mechanisms by which the active ingredients of medicinal plants serve to improve human health. Together this three-volume collection intends to bridge the gap for herbalists, traditional and modern medical practitioners, and students and researchers in botany and horticulture.

Increase in world population, extreme weather conditions, decrease in fresh water supplies, and changes of dietary habits are major issues that affect global food security. We are expected to face the challenges of land use by 2050 because population will reach 9 billion while agricultural productivity losses are expected due to overuse of lands. How can we feed the next generations in a manner that respects our finite natural resources? Managing our resources in a sustainable way have only begun for selected crops. Much remains to be done to increase food yield. Cropping practices capable of sustainable production need to be elaborated, especially in fragile ecosystems. Typical applications will include the improvement and use of genetic resources; crop management and diversification; diffusion of improved varieties; development of cropping systems; sustainable cropping systems for areas prone to environmental degradation; use of agro-ecological data for crop production forecasting; and networks for regional coordination, and data exchange. The impetus behind this book is to bring attention to a cropping system that bears direct relevance to sustainable agriculture and food security. “Underutilized” crops are found in numerous agricultural ecosystems and often survive mainly in marginal areas. It is timely to review their status because, in recent decades, scientific and economic interests have emerged which focus on lesser-known cultivated species. Underutilized crops have a great potential to alleviate hunger directly, through increasing food production in challenging environments where major crops are severely limited.“Global Perspectives on Underutilized Crops” is therefore topical and highlights the unmet agricultural challenges that we face today. This book is an important resource for students and researchers of crop science and agricultural policy makers.

This book: (i) introduces fundamental and applied bioinformatics research in the field of plant life sciences; (ii) enlightens the potential users towards the recent advances in the development and application of novel computational methods available for the analysis and integration of plant -omics data; (iii) highlights relevant databases, softwares, tools and web resources developed till date to make ease of access for researchers working to decipher plant responses towards stresses; and (iv) presents a critical cross-talks on the available high-throughput data in plant research. Therefore, in addition to being a reference for the professional researchers, it is also of great interest to students and their professors. Considering immense significance of plants for all lives on Earth, the major focus of research in plant biology has been to: (a) select plants that best fit the purposes of human, (b) develop crop plants superior in quality, quantity and farming practiceswhen compared to natural (wild) plants, and (c) explore strategies to help plants to adapt biotic and abiotic/environmental stress factors. Accordingly the development of novel techniques and their applications have increased significantly in recent years. In particular, large amount of biological data have emerged from multi-omics approaches aimed at addressing numerous aspects of the plant systems under biotic or abiotic stresses. However, even though the field is evolving at a rapid pace, information on the cross-talks and/or critical digestion of research outcomes in the context of plant bioinformatics is scarce. “Plant Bioinformatics: Decoding the Phyta” is aimed to bridge this gap.

This book is a part of the Sabkha Ecosystems series which was designed to provide information on sabkha ecosystems of different regions and to add to the collective knowledge available about saline ecosystems. The comprehensive coverage assists the reader gaining a thorough understanding of sabkha geology, hydrology, geomorphology, zoology, botany, ecology and ecosystem functioning, as well as sabkha conservation, utilization and development. Volume I focused on The Arabian Peninsula and Adjacent Countries, volume II was based on describing saline ecosystems of West and Central Asia, volume III referred to Africa and Southern Europe, while volume IV focused on Cash Crop Halophyte and Biodiversity Conservation. The present volume V focuses on Americans.

The soil is being contaminated continuously by a large number of pollutants. Among them, heavy metals are an exclusive group of toxicants because they are stable and difficult to disseminate into non-toxic forms. The ever-increasing concentrations of such pollutants in the soil are considered serious threats toward everyone's health and the environment. Many techniques are used to clean, eliminate, obliterate or sequester these hazardous pollutants from the soil. However, these techniques can be costly, labor intensive, and often disquieting. Phytoremediation is a simple, cost effective, environmental friendly and fast-emerging new technology for eliminating toxic heavy metals and other related soil pollutants. Soil Remediation and Plants provides a common platform for biologists, agricultural engineers, environmental scientists, and chemists, working with a common aim of finding sustainable solutions to various environmental issues. The book provides an overview of ecosystem approaches and phytotechnologies and their cumulative significance in relation to solving various environmental problems. Identifies the molecular mechanisms through which plants are able to remediate pollutants from the soil Examines the challenges and possibilities towards the various phytoremediation candidates Includes the latest research and ongoing progress in phytoremediation

The improvement of crop species has been a basic pursuit since cultivation began thousands of years ago. To feed an ever increasing world population will require a great increase in food production. Wheat, corn, rice, potato and few others are expected to lead as the most important crops in the world. Enormous efforts are made all over the world to document as well as use these resources. Everybody knows that the introgression of genes in wheat provided the foundation for the “Green Revolution”. Later also demonstrated the great impact that genetic resources have on production. Several factors are contributing to high plant performance under different environmental conditions, therefore an effective and complementary use of all available technological tools and resources is needed to meet the challenge.

The problems engendered by the conflicting imperatives of development and ecology show no sign of ending, and every day more locations are added to the list of landscapes poisoned by human activity. This vital book, featuring an international set of authors, is a key reference for researchers and environmental managers, as well as anyone involved in the mining industry or landscape remediation. The comprehensive coverage of current approaches to phytoremediation begins by examining the problem. It looks at natural and human-induced toxins, and their effects on natural vegetation as well as agricultural crops. Particular attention is paid to the two largest challenges to remediation – heavy metals, and the salt stress that is impeding agricultural productivity worldwide. The text moves on to focus on the efficacy of different plant species in removing toxic pollutants from the environment. Along with analysis of a number of case studies, this section includes new and updated information on the mechanism of toxin-tolerance in plants.

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.