CONTENTS: Part A Basics of Plant Breeding Preface 1. Introduction 1.1. Introduction to Plant Breeding 1.2. The Growing Food Needs and Declining Agricultural Resources 1.3. Major Developments 1.4. Activities In Plant Breeding 1.5. Domestication 1.6. Genetic Resources 1.7. Modes of Reproduction 1.8. Qualitative and Quantitative Traits 1.9. Achievements 1.10. Undesirable Consequences of Plant Breeding 1.11. Limitations of Plant Breeding Methods 1.12. Conclusions PRACTICE QUESTIONS RELEVANT LITERATURE 2. The Relevance of Genetics and Genomics in Plant Breeding 2.1. Introduction 2.2. Genes and Chromosomes 2.3. Cell Division 2.4. Inheritance of Qualitative Traits 2.5. Inheritance of Quantitative Traits 2.6. Population Genetics 2.7. Cytoplasmic Inheritance 2.8. Molecular Genetics 2.9. Epigenetics 2.10. Genomic Imprinting 2.11. Genome Editing 2.12. Genomic Resources PRACTICE QUESTIONS RELEVANT LITERATURE 3. Tools of Plant Breeding 3.1. Introduction 3.2. Introduction to Genetic Resources 3.3. Pollination Control 3.4. Hybridization: Intraspecific and Interspecific 3.5. Heterosis and Inbreeding Depression 3.6. Polyploidy 3.7. Mutation Breeding 3.8. Somaclonal Variation 3.9. Selection PRACTICE QUESTIONS RELEVANT LITERATURE 4. Breeding of Self-Pollinated Crops 4.1. Introduction 4.2. Methods of Selection 4.3. Hybridization 4.4. Pedigree Method 4.5. Bulk Method 4.6. Single Seed Descent Method 4.7. Use of Haploids for Rapid Isolation of Homozygous Lines 4.8. Backcross Method 4.9. Multiline Varieties 4.10. Population Breeding Approach 4.11. Rapid Isolation of Homozygous Lines (hybrid Sorting) 4.12. Hybrid Varieties 4.13. Participatory Crop Improvement 4.14. Breeding of Often Cross-pollinated Crops 4.15. Breeding of Asexually Propagated Crops 4.16. Mutation Breeding 4.17. Conclusion PRACTICE QUESTIONS RELEVANT LITERATURE 5. Breeding of Cross-Pollinated Crops 5.1. Introduction 5.2. Selection in Cross-pollinated Crops 5.3. Recurrent Selection 5.4. Hybrid Varieties 5.5. Synthetic Varieties 5.7. Achievements With Synthetic and Composite Varieties 5.8. Conclusion PRACTICE QUESTIONS RELEVANT LITERATURE 6. Breeding for Biotic Stress Resistance 6.1. Introduction 6.2. Breeding for Disease Resistance 6.3. Breeding For Insect Resistance 6.4. Conclusions PRACTICE QUESTIONS RELEVANT LITERATURE 7. Breeding for Resistance to Abiotic Stresses 7.1. Introduction 7.2. Breeding for Drought Resistance 7.3. Breeding for Resistance to Salinity Stress 7.4. Breeding for Salinity Stress Resistance 7.5. Breeding for Resistance to Mineral Stresses 7.6. Breeding for Resistance to Temperature Stress 7.7. Achievements of Breeding for Abiotic Stress Resistance 7.8. Conclusions PRACTICE QUESTIONS RELEVANT LITERATURE 8. Breeding for Quality Traits 8.1. Introduction 8.2. Breeding for Nutritional Quality 8.3. Inheritance of Nutritional Quality Traits 8.4. Elimination of Anti-nutritional Factors 8.5. Breeding for Enhanced Vitamin Content 8.6. Protein Content and Quality 8.7. Oil Content and Quality 8.8. Sources for Quality Traits 8.9. Breeding Approaches for Quality Traits 8.10. Limitations of Breeding for Quality PRACTICE QUESTIONS RELEVANT LITERATURE Part B Transgenic Technology 9. The Basic Techniques of Transgenic Technology 9.1. Introduction 9.2. Plant Tissue Culture 9.3. Regeneration of Complete Plantlets 9.4. Recombinant DNA Technology 9.5. Transgenic Plants 9.6. Gene Constructs for Plants 9.7. Marker or Reporter Genes 9.8. Vectors for Plant Transformation 9.9. Genetic Transformation of Plants 9.10. Genetic Transformation of Chloroplasts 9.11. Transgene Integration and Inheritance PRACTICE QUESTIONS RELEVANT LITERATURE 10. Transgenic Plants for Resistance to Biotic and Abiotic Stresses 10.1. Introduction 10.2. Objectives of Transgene Expression 10.3. Abiotic and Biotic Stresses 10.4. Herbicide Resistance 10.5. Insect Resistance 10.6. Virus Resistance 10.7. Disease Resistance 10.8. Salinity and Drought Tolerance 10.9. Conclusions PRACTICE QUESTIONS RELEVANT LITERATURE 11. Transgenic Plants with modified Quality and other Novel Traits 11.1. Introduction 11.2. Endogenous Gene Suppression 11.3. Slow Fruit Softening Tomato 11.4. Modification of Oil Quality 11.5. Modification of Protein Quality 11.6. Modification of Starch Quality 11.7. Golden Rice 11.8. Male Sterility 11.9. Edible Vaccines 11.10. Biochemical Production 11.11. Crops for Biofuel Production 11.12. Conclusions PRACTICE QUESTIONS RELEVANT LITERATURE 12. Biosafety Issues Related to and Adoption of Transgenic Crops 12.1. Introduction 12.2. Potential Benefits From Transgenic Crop Varieties 12.3. GM Crops Approved for Commercial Cultivation 12.4. Adoption of GM Crops By Farmers 12.5. Agronomic Impact of Transgenic Crops 12.6. Economic Benefits from Transgenic Varieties 12.7. Consumer Acceptance of Transgenic Crop Produce 12.8. Social Impact of Transgenic Crops 12.9. Risks From GM Crops 12.10. Regulation of GM Crop Varieties 12.11. Safety of GM Food 12.12. Environmental Risks From GM Crops 12.13. Transgene Dispersal VIA Pollen And DNA 12.14. Issues Relevant to Agriculture 12.15. Conclusions PRACTICE QUESTIONS RELEVANT LITERATURE Part C Molecular Markers 13. Molecular Marker Systems and Trait Phenotyping 13.1. Introduction 13.2. Genetic Markers 13.3. Isolation and Purification of DNA From Plants 13.4. Polymerase Chain Reaction 13.5. Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism 13.6. Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA 13.7. Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism 13.8. Diversity Array Technology 13.9. Sequence Characterized Amplified Regions 13.10. Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) Polymorphisms 13.11. Inter-SSR (ISSR) Markers 13.12. Start Codon Targeted Polymorphism 13.13. Single Nucleotide Polymorphism 13.14. Cleaved Amplified Polymorphic Sequences 13.15. Allele-specific PCR 13.16. High Throughput Genotyping 13.17. Trait Phenotyping 13.18. Conclusions PRACTICE QUESTIONS RELEVANT LITERATURE 14. Marker-Trait Associations 14.1 Introduction 14.2 Populations for Linkage Mapping 14.3. Populations for Association Mapping 14.4 Some Relevant Facts about Mapping Populations 14.5 Linkage Mapping of Markers and Genes 14.6 Linkage Mapping of QTLS 14.7 Association Mapping 14.8. Conclusions PRACTICE QUESTIONS RELEVANT LITERATURE 15. Applications of Molecular Markers in Plant Breeding 15.1. Introduction 15.2. Germplasm Characterization and Conservation 15.3. Diversity and Phylogenetic Analyses 15.4. DNA Fingerprinting 15.5. Evaluation of Genetic Purity of Parental Lines and Seed Lots 15.6. Positional Cloning of Genes 15.7. Selection of Parents for Hybridization 15.8. Marker-assisted Selection 15.9. Marker-assisted Backcrossing 15.10. QTL Introgression and other issues 15.11. Marker-assisted Recurrent Selection 15.12. Novel Breeding Schemes 15.13. Genomic Selection 15.14. Achievements with MAS 15.15. Advantages of MAS 15.16. Limitations of MAS 15.17. Conclusions PRACTICE QUESTIONS RELEVANT LITERATURE Part D Miscellaneous 16. Variety Release, Seed Multiplication and Intellectual Property Rights 16.1. Introduction 16.2. Release of New Varieties 16.3. Seed Multiplication 16.4. Intellectual Property Rights 16.5. Conclusions PRACTICE QUESTIONS FURTHER READINGS Subject Index Author Index